


Sing For Me

by Merm_Rain



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Childhood Friends, Comfort, Explicit rating for much later things..., F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route Spoilers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Mild Blood, NSFW, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Romance, Sexual Content, Slow Romance, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:20:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24655216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merm_Rain/pseuds/Merm_Rain
Summary: What if Felix and Annette met as children when Felix happens upon Annette singing in a field. They play with each other anytime they run into each other until the Tragedy of Duscur as some big changes happen to both of them. When they meet again at the academy they don't really remember their childhood friendship, but the ghost of memories from then tug at Felix's mind.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Hapi, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth, Ferdinand von Aegir/Dorothea Arnault, Flayn/Dedue Molinaro, Glenn Fraldarius/Ingrid Brandl Galatea, Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Yuris Leclair | Yuri Leclerc, Marianne von Edmund/Ignatz Victor, Sylvain Jose Gautier/Mercedes von Martritz
Comments: 15
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First Meeting; A song in a barren field.

**Lone Moon, Year 1174**

The clouds cluttered the sky as per usual on a day in Fhirdiad, with a light wind rustling the trees around a small, clearing. The grass was all but dead on the ground, browning and never growing. Rocks of various sizes sat here and there and there was not much for wildlife but some birds in the trees. Felix charged through the clearing, a wooden sword in hand, and swung his sword at a tree trunk as he passed. He then skid to a stop and turned to the tree once more, sword at the ready, and swung at the tree over and over, leaving small gashes in the bark. He paused to look over his work, pushing his dark bangs out of his face, before running to do the same to another tree a little further in the distance, cutting dead weeds along the way. He swung and swung, putting as much force and speed his small arms could manage.

Once he was satisfied, he started running in the direction of the cluster of trees further ahead and started slashing at it as well. He huffed and slashed till that tree too was left with many gashes, then plopped himself down in the grass. He wiped the sweat from his brow and dusted the little bits of bark from his clothes, leaning back. After a few minutes and he’d caught his breath, he stood to continue practicing his swordplay, walking to a tree a little further away. He reached his next target when he heard a voice in the distance to his left. The voice was light as it happily sang some lyrics he could not quite hear or understand. His curiosity peaked, he started to run in the direction of the voice, slowing as he got closer and peeked towards the source from behind a tree.

“Flowers, flowers, there are just a few flowers! Yellow ones, and green ones, blue ones, and orange! Ohhh the many flowers I will pick! And the crowns I will make! Ooh how I just really love floow-errs!”

There, in a another barren field with the occasional flower that dared to bloom here or there in this cold weather, a girl who appeared close to his own age was swaying and dancing about as she sang her song, carefully picking any flower she saw around her. She was shorter than him by a few inches he’d guess, with bright light orange hair pulled back in two pigtails at the nape of her neck that bounced as she danced. Her dark blue dress swished around her knees. She turned in his direction mid-dance and he was met with light blue eyes and the glimpse of her cheery smile before-

“Bah!!”

“Ahhh!!”

They both yelled in surprise, the girl’s face shifting from cheery to shock and embarrassment, a blush coloring her cheeks. Felix felt a blush of his own fill his cheeks before he shook his head, dropping his wooden sword at his feet.

“W-were you watching me…?” the girl dropped her shock and replaced it with an accusatory pout.

“What? Of course not!” Felix protested, though he had been, but he was not about to admit to that.

“Hmph. Surree…” Her pout deepened before she seemed to decide to let it go and started walking up to him, small flowers clutched in her hands; they were closer to weeds, but that’s the best you could get in Faerghus. “What’s your name?”

“Felix.” He replied almost immediately, his eyes never leaving the younger girl’s face.

A bright smile broke across her features, “I’m Annette! Want to hang out with me?”

“Huh?” he stared at her for a second, surprise on his features before responding. “Uh, sorry, I was in the middle of practicing my sword skills.”

“Oh? How’d you end up way over here?”

“I heard singing.”

Her blush returned at full force, “I knew it! You were watching me!” she groaned and tugged on her pigtails “This is so embarrassing…!”

“N-no I wasn’t! Now let’s just play!”

“I thought you couldn’t since you were practicing sword fighting?” she gave him a skeptical look.

“Yeah well, if it‘ll make you feel better, I can practice later.” _What am I saying? I just met her, if I just leave it won’t matter and she’ll forget about me seeing her singing her silly flower song…_

“Well, if that’s what you say…” she dropped the flowers in her hands and reached a hand out to his shoulder, tapping it before running off. “Tag! You’re it!”

“Wha-“He stood staring after her, confused as he watched her disappear towards the trees. He shook his head and started running in the direction she left, leaving his sword forgotten.

Felix chased after her, the occasional color of a flower and the dull yellow/brown of the grass around him blurring together. He paused his charge and looked around the field when she was suddenly out of sight, searching for any hint of her when he sees a peek of orange hair behind a nearby tree. He turns to run towards her, almost reaching her when she laughs and runs in the other direction. They run and chase each other all over the field, hearts pounding in their ears and their breaths heavy, only breaking to catch their breath. They ran for what felt like hours, tagging each other back and forth until they both plopped themselves in the grass beside each other and lay sprawled out on their backs, panting.

“I can’t run anymore...!” Annette exclaimed between pants.

“I haven’t ever run that much…!” he huffs out a breath “Not even for training…”

Annette laughs and sighs as her breathing evens out. They lay in silence, the only sound being the light chirping of birds, their eyes on the faded yellow of the sky above.

“That was fun…”

“Yeah.” He replied and watched what little of the sun could be seen through the clouds slowly dipping itself lower.

“Sorry I kept you from your sword practice.”

“It’s fine.” And, it was fine. Felix wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t actually care that he spent the rest of his day playing with this girl instead of practicing. Maybe it’s because the running served as a good endurance workout. And for someone so small, boy could Annette run. He had to work himself harder to keep up with her. He glanced her direction to see her smiling, her eyes shut and the light wind ruffling her hair. “I practice all the time anyway.”

“Oh, you do?” she turned her head to look at him. “Are you training to become a master swordsman?”

“You’re the first person to come to that guess, and you are right. Most people assume that I want to be a knight, which isn’t quite true. I want to become the best swordsman in the world.”

“I believe you can do it.”

He turned to look at her again.

“It’s my belief that if you work hard enough towards something, you’ll reach it! One day, I decided I wanted to try out magic, so I borrowed one of my mother’s tomes. I tried the easiest spell since it was my first and it worked! My father saw and he praised my ability to use magic! So ever since I’ve been practicing hard to become really good at it, and I’ve almost mastered my first spell!”

He stared at her in interest, watching the smile on her face as she told her tale, then gave her a smile of his own when she finished.

“That’s great! I want to see it one day! What kind of magic do you use?”

“Wind.” The breeze ruffled their hair and the trees. “My father describes it as peaceful but deadly.”

“Your father’s probably right about that. One wouldn’t expect to get seriously hurt when smacked by wind, but when it’s focused and hitting hard and especially since it’s magical, it can easily cut through anything.”

“Yeah.” She fiddled with her fingers.

“Well, you should definitely show me sometime. Not against me though, obviously,” he scratched his head. “But there are plenty of trees we can use as targets.”

She laughed, a sound he was finding he enjoyed. “That could be fun!” she touched a finger to her chin, in thought, then smiled brightly at him. “Maybe I could teach you the spell once I’ve mastered it!”

His eyes widened with a child-like excitement. “Really?! You’d teach me magic?”

She giggled, “Why not! It could be fun, and like you said, there are plenty of trees we can practice on.” They laughed in unison. The sky was now at the point where it’d be dimming pretty soon.

“I should probably head home. My father will likely be looking for me soon.” She sat up and looked down at him. He followed suit.

“Do you live near here?” he looked around the small field.

“Yeah, just that way over the creek.” She pointed in the direction she was referring to.

His eyes followed her hand, looking across the field where a small creek rest in the distance surrounded by trees. Just beyond the trees he could see part of a large house.

“Want me to walk you home?”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that. It’s just right there, and I wouldn’t want to keep you any longer when you probably need to head back as well.” She looked over at him and smiled. “But I thank you for the off-“

“Come on.”

He grabbed her hand and started walking towards the house beyond the creek.

“F-Felix…! It’s fine really! My house is right there…”

“I wouldn’t sleep well if I learned something happened after I left. You don’t live far so it won’t take much extra time and I can still get home at a decent time.” _What am I worried about?_

“If you say so…” she follows behind him, silent all the while.

Realizing he’s still holding her hand he releases it, his cheeks pinkening just a little, and they continue to walk until they reach the creek. The creek is slow and small, and mostly frozen as it never gets warm enough for anything to melt. Slightly flat stones make a convenient path across.

“My father placed some stones here so that I could more easily cross the creek without hurting myself. I come to this field a lot.”

“I see. That’s a good idea.”

“Yup!” she grinned and started crossing the creek from stone to stone, her arms out to keep her balance.

He followed behind her, carefully crossing the stones until their feet once more met grass. They then strode through the trees to the yard of the house. The house was large yet modest, with rather small, and not very lively, flowerbeds lining the back. To the side was a small pile of wood with an axe and a small knife lying beside it on a stump. The back door opened, and the silhouette of an older man stepped in the doorway to look out. A deep voice called out into the yard.

“Annette!”

“That’s my father! See you Felix!” she smiled and waved at him happily as she started to run to her father, but she stopped and turned to him. “We should play again sometime! Doesn’t have to be tag, we can play whatever! Or start magic training! Hehe.”

“I’d like that.” He agreed with a grin and waved back. “See you Annette.”

He watched her run off to her house and start excitedly talking to her father as they went through the door. He turned and started trekking back across the frozen creek and across the field to where he had left his wooden sword in the dead grass. Felix grabbed his practice weapon and shoved it in his belt, starting the walk home. He walked through the trees that he had come from, following the ones that he had left gashes in til he was through the clearing and into his back yard. The evening was quiet, save for his older brother doing maintenance on his blade, his dark hair pulled back in a chord so it wasn’t in his face. The young man looked up at the sound of Felix’s coming footsteps.

“Felix! You’re back, I was beginning to wonder when you were going to return.” His brother looked him over. “Your clothes are covered in grass. Did you trip?”

“Glenn! I-“ he paused and looked down at his clothes.

Sure enough there was bits of grass clinging to his pants and shirt in different places from laying in the field with Annette. He dusted himself off, picking off the grass from his clothes, and set his wooden sword amongst other training weapons on a rack against the wall.

“I was very into my training today.” He finished, a faint dusting of pink on his cheeks. Felix wasn’t sure he wanted to mention that he had actually been spending his afternoon playing with a girl he’d just met. The last thing he wanted was his brother teasing him about his new friend.

“That’s good. Maybe you can spar with me again and we can see how far you’ve come.”

Felix nodded, a light of excitement in his eyes at the thought of another spar with his older brother, “I look forward to it!” he paused, “I’m tired right now though… I think I’m going to call it a day.”

His brother chuckled, “That’s fine, when you’re tired you should rest and save training and sparring for another day when you have the energy.” He sheathed his blade and attached it to his belt. “We can spar this weekend.”

“Heh, I look forward to it!” A grin spread on his lips as he turned to the door.

He strode to the wooden door and pulled it open. Felix went inside, closing the door behind him as Glenn followed in behind him and stepped into the living room. The room was large, lined with comfortable seating and cushions, a fireplace against the back wall with a rug and small low table in front of it. Blankets lay neatly draped over the arms of each sofa for extra warmth in the colder months. In the corner sat his father sitting in his armchair with a book in hand.

“You’re later than usual, you’re training go well?” his father inquired, looking up from the page he was reading.

“Yes, it went pretty well. I decided to work on my endurance, and I believe I’ve improved it quite a bit.”

“That’s great, son, I’m glad your training is getting better.” The dark-haired man gave a slight smile. “Dinner should be ready soon, I believe we’re having steak and freshly steamed vegetables tonight.” He looks him up and down, “You might want to clean up a little before then.” His father had a ghost of amusement on his features at his son’s appearance from his ‘training’.

Felix ignored it, eyes brightening at the mention of one of his favorite meals. “Alright, I’ll be back!”

With a nod from his father, Felix dashed up the stairs and into his room. He changed out of his grass-covered clothes and entered his bathroom to clean up. Luckily, most of the damage was just grass which came off with his clothes, minus what little was still in his hair. He quickly washed his face and hands before grabbing the little bucket of water to start washing out his hair, dragging his fingers through it vigorously so as to be done with the tedious task more quickly. Luckily his hair was short. Once finished, he dried his head and changed into some clean clothes; nothing fancy as it was evening, just a white shirt and a pair of pants. Felix then slipped on his slippers and exited his room, descending the stairs two at a time.

“Someone’s looking forward to dinner.” Glenn said from where he stood in the living room, a smirk on his face.

“Shut up. I’m just hungry is all.” Felix came to a stop at the last step and sat on it. “I ran a lot today.”

“Oh? So that’s what you meant by endurance training. I had assumed you just had one of your friends swing their practice weapon at yours over and over to see how long you could last.” His father gave him a knowing look.

“I don’t only train with my blade.” His features morphed into a slight pout at being teased.

“Well that’s good. There are many things that make good for training other than just sparring.” Glenn glanced at Felix. “I almost wasn’t sure you knew them.”

Felix rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. He looked around the room and tapped his feet on the floor in front of him.

“Oh! Before I forget, Felix you have training with your friends tomorrow, right? His Highness asked that I tell you he’ll be able to make it as well. He looks forward to training with you all tomorrow.”

Felix grinned and got to his feet. “Great! This should prove to be another great training session.”

“Ingrid will be here tomorrow?” Glenn asked their father.

“Hm? Oh yes! Young Miss Galatea will be here tomorrow, along with young Mister Guatier.” Their father responded.

Glenn’s eyes brightened and Felix just sighed.

“Please don’t be too lovey to her in front of us. It’s embarrassing.”

The older boy rolled his eyes. “I’m not your friend Sylvain, nor do I plan to be.”

“Uh huh... Sylvain teases her about it though.”

“Ugghh… Of course he does…” The older boy sighed and shook his head.

“Alright you three, that’s enough of that, dinner is ready so let’s all come to the table now, shall we?” Her voice came from the dining room where she stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips and a smile on her lips. His mother was an elegant woman, her hair long and dark kept in a loose braid over her shoulder. She also was quite a fierce swordswoman. On the rare occasion she sparred, Glenn and their father were kept on their toes (though their father was more of a mage than a swordsman, so he excelled in magic). Glenn, on the other hand, was an excellent swordsman and recently became a knight for the kingdom. While their mother was rusty in her sword fighting from lack of training for a few years, Glenn still had to get resourceful to strike a win. He’s really good. Felix’s goal is to one day surpass him, and so he must train with all his might.

The family gathered at the table and took their seats. They said a few words of thanks to the goddess and then started serving their food. Felix grabbed two servings of steak and hastily placed it on his plate before next spooning some steamed vegetables onto his plate as well. Once everyone had what they wanted they began to eat in relative silence, the occasional comment here and there about one’s day. Felix forked bite after bite of food in his mouth, only pausing to chew or follow it down with some water. He knew he was hungry, but he hadn’t realized he was this hungry. Who knew a few games of tag could take so much out of you?

After a few more bites he had to slow down as eating too fast had caused a pain in his chest. He winced and gulped down some water, the cool liquid easing the slight pain. He then began eating the rest of his food more slowly so he wouldn’t hurt himself again. Once he was finished and everyone else was finished with their food, his mother gathered up their dishes and went to the kitchen to clean up with the help of one of their house keepers. Felix stood from his chair and tiredly stretched his arms.

“That was great mom!” he called out to his mother.

She chuckled before calling back, “I’m glad you enjoyed it dear.”

“I think I’m going to turn in for the night.” He yawned and pushed in his chair.

“Alright, son. Rest well and see you in the morning.” His father patted his shoulder.

“Good night.”

“Good night dear!” “’Night Felix.”

Felix climbed the stairs and entered his room, shutting the door behind him. He changed into his bed clothes and threw himself onto his bed. The bed was firm with dark blue bedding and white pillowcases.

“What a day…” he sighed into his mattress and took a glance out his window.

The sky was now dark, speckled with stars, but still fairly cloudy. He could hear the wind howling softly outside his window. He climbed under his blankets and curled onto his side, his mind drifting back to the young orange-haired girl he had met and played with today. He had enjoyed running with her, and he found that he wanted to hang out with her again, even learn magic. Should the opportunity arise. He could feel his excitement return at the thought before he closed his eyes and started drifting to sleep, the voice of his new friend singing about flowers in his head.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Training with friends and some brother bonding time where a young Felix gets teased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! here's the next chapter of Sing For Me! :)

Felix sat in the grass of his back yard, his wooden sword in hand with a small knife in his other hand as he chipped at the wooden blade, fixing it from the previous day’s practice. He reformed the edges so that they were straighter and wrapped some new wrap around the handle for grip and so the wood wouldn’t dig into his palms. He looked over his work. There were some nicks in the blade here and there, but otherwise his training sword was back in condition good enough for at least one more day of training. He swung the sword through the air a couple times, the blade making a swish sound as he did.

“Heh, now me and my sword are ready for a day of worthwhile training!” he grinned and swished it around a couple more times when the door behind him opened.

“Woah! I come in peace.” Glenn smirks and suddenly grabs a training sword from the rack against the wall before quickly knocking the sword out of Felix’s hand in the same movement.

“Oof!” Not expecting the action, Felix stumbles backwards onto his bottom with a grunt. He glares up at his older brother.

“Glenn!”

“You need to practice your perception so you’re less prone to surprises.”

“Hmph… you’re right…” Felix pouts and stands, dusting off his pants. He hated it when Glenn was right, he would always give him a smug smile, much like the one he was giving him now.

“We can work on that when we spar this weekend. You should try to practice it with your friends today as well. Pay attention to their hands and eyes, also listen carefully to your surroundings.” He ruffled Felix’s hair and put his training weapon back up.

“I’ll practice till you nor anyone else can catch me by surprise! Just you see!”

“Good. With that mindset, I’m sure you will.” He smiled down at his little brother and Felix grinned back, shoving his wooden sword into his belt.

Felix stretched his arms above his head and sighed, “I’m gonna get some water before they get here.” He went to the door, opened it, and walked inside to the kitchen.

In the kitchen his mother was prepping something on the counter while their house keeper helped and cleaned. As he entered the kitchen, his mother turned to him and smiled.

“Felix! Are your friends here yet?”

“Not yet, I was just getting a drink of water.” He grabbed a glass as he replied and carefully filled it with water.

She chuckled. “Well, could you take this pitcher and this tray out to the yard for you and your friends? I made you all some lunch and the pitcher’s got some cold water for you guys while you train.” She set the tray on the little table in the middle of kitchen with the pitcher. “Now I need to go help your father with something really quick, we’ll be out when your friends get here.” She kissed his cheek and exited the room.

Felix grumbled as he rubbed his cheek after she left, “I’m not a baby anymore…”

He gulped down his water and set his glass in the sink before grabbing the tray his mother left. The tray held stacks of sandwiches, each made with thin slices of meat, tomato, and cheese, with crisp lettuce between slices of wheat bread. He gingerly carried the tray in his hands while one of the house keepers grabbed the pitcher.

“I can take this, Master Felix.” She smiled. The house keeper was a gentle young girl no older than himself with long light green hair that was tied at the bottom with a ribbon, messy bangs, and kind blue eyes. She was an orphan his parents had taken in when they found her in the woods near their home. They gave her a home in the House of Fraldarius and she insisted to help with the house work as a house keeper. She’d looked a lot healthier since she was found and often wore a smile on her face.

Felix nodded at her and let her take the pitcher, “Thank you, Saria.”

“Of course!”

The girl followed behind Felix into the backyard with the pitcher, holding the door open for him and closing it behind them once they were out. He set the tray on a stump near the door while Saria set the pitcher beside it before she ran inside to grab some cups. Felix sat in the grass and started pulling up some dried blades of grass when he started to hear arguing voices approaching the house.

“This _needs_ to stop, Sylvain! I can’t continue to clean up your messes forever! Lord Gwendal was furious! Do you realize how hard it’s going to be for me to apologize to him for you so he doesn’t come after you?” He could hear the rising anger in the stern feminine voice of one of his friends.

Glenn’s eyes lit up, “Ingrid’s here…”

Felix rolled his eyes.

“I’m sorry! Really! It won’t happen again!” An easy going yet nervous voice responded back.

“You’ve said that before! And yet here we are, with another knight that wants your head for flirting with his daughter!”

“Hey, I can’t help that she’s a beauty. I can’t just ignore her, that’d be rude.”

“You can talk to her normally, that way you don’t anger anyone or play with someone’s _feelings_!”

“Guys, can we calm down a bit, we’re nearing Felix’s house and it’d be rude to enter while yelling at each other…” another slightly matured voice entered in the argument.

The other two voices agreed and mumbled apologies as they quieted. Felix sighed at the topic of argument amongst his friends as he went inside to meet them at the front door. _Will Sylvain ever learn?_ He shook his head and opened the door to his trio of friends, a grin on his face when he saw them. In the doorway stood the girl who had been yelling at Sylvain previously, the stern look on her features morphing into a smile at the sight of her friend. She had long blonde hair tied in a loose braid down her back and green eyes and was the same age as Felix. On her right was an older boy with wild red hair and brown eyes squinted with the easygoing grin on his face. He was at least a few inches taller than the rest of them and two years older. On the other side of the girl was a boy who also matched Felix in age. His hair was short and blonde, framing his honest blue eyes.

“Ingrid! Sylvain! Dimitri!” He greeted them each with a grin, “You guys made it.”

“Of course. Would never miss a fine opportunity to train with friends.” Dimitri replied with a grin.

“Yup! And Ingrid could never pass up a chance to visit Glenn.” Sylvan smirked and winked as he dodged a smack of the head from a slightly flushed Ingrid.

“Do you ever shut up?” she glared at him and he held his hands up.

Felix rolled his eyes and opened the door wider for his friends who followed him inside. They each removed their jackets and hung them up when Felix’s parents entered the room.

“Hello Dimitri, Sylvain, Ingrid. You three up for some lunch? I made you all some sandwiches; they should be on a tray in the backyard with some water.”

“Thank you so much for your hospitality Lady Fraldarius.” Dimitri replied with sincerity.

“Thank you so much!”

“We’re very grateful.”

“Anytime dears.” She smiles at them, “Don’t hesitate to let me know if I can get you anything, alright kids? I’ll be in here if you need me.” Felix’s mother smiled once more and went to one of the chairs in the living room to read a book.

Felix’s father smiled, “It’s always good to see you kids, your highness. Please let me know if you all need any help with your training, I’ll be happy to assist in any way I can.” He chuckled and pat them each on the head before going to sit with his wife.

Felix and his friends turned to go to the backyard when the back door suddenly opened and Glenn stood in the doorway. Felix bit back a laugh at the look on his brother’s face. While he found his brother’s and Ingrid’s ‘lovey’ interactions to be embarrassing, he also couldn’t help but find some things entertaining. That included some of the funny reactions Glenn would have sometimes when he saw or was around Ingrid.

_Surprised it took him this long to come in._ Felix thought to himself.

“Ingrid…” Glenn greeted her.

Ingrid blushed slightly and Sylvain snickered.

“Hey Glenn…” she gave a small wave.

“Smoochy smoochy…”

Dimitri elbowed Sylvain. “Sylvain, behave yourself, will you?”

Glenn straightened himself and scratched the back of his head, “Prince Dimitri, Sylvain, Ingrid… It’s good to see you all.” He paused, “Soo… shall we have lunch before we train?”

“Sounds like a great idea!” Felix piped up and the others all eagerly agreed and followed him and Glenn into the yard.

They gathered around the tray of sandwiches on the stump and each grabbed one along with a cup of water, then sat in the grass in a circle. Once each of them had seated they started happily digging into their sandwiches, occasionally commenting on how good the lunch was.

Ingrid gave a satisfied sigh as she finished her sandwich. “Goddess your mother makes some of the best food, Felix! I could eat so much of her cooking.”

Dimitri laughed, “I feel that you would say that about almost anyone’s cooking, Ingrid.”

“That’s not true! I bet Felix is nowhere near as good of a cook as his mother. Or Glenn.”

“That’d be because I’m not.” Felix swallowed his last bit of sandwich.

“Glenn’s busy with being a knight anyways, and the only thing Felix likes to do is train. I bet he’s never flirted with a girl.” Sylvain grinned.

Suddenly light orange pigtails and bright blue eyes flashed across his mind and he felt his cheeks warm. _Why did I think of_ her _? I didn’t flirt with Annette…_

Unfortunately for Felix, the light flush of his cheeks didn’t go unnoticed by Sylvain, or the rest of his friends for that matter.

“Oohh, he has! He’s slowly becoming a man!” Sylvain grinned.

“Aww, Felix having crush is actually quite cute… Just don’t take any advice from Sylvain about it.” Ingrid smiled before turning to their red-haired friend. “And Sylvain, I could hardly call you a man just because you flirt with anything that breathes.”

“I never knew you had crush on anyone, Felix.” His brother looked at him curiously.

“Uugh, will you guys stop! I don’t have a crush on her… I only just met her.” Realizing what he let slip he immediately covered his mouth with his hands.

“Oho, so you have talked to a girl though!” Sylvain snickered and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “It’s finally happened.”

“Oh quit it Sylvain, leave him alone. No need to tease him about it.” Dimitri cut in.

Felix groaned. This was not how he was hoping today’s training would start out, being teased about a girl he just met.

“So, when do we get to meet her?” Glenn asked him.

“You should invite her to train with us sometime! We’d love to meet her.” Ingrid added with a smile as she twirled a strand of hair with her finger.

“I wonder if she’s anyone we know…” Sylvain pondered aloud.

“I would be most curious to meet who has caught Felix’s attention as well.” the young prince admitted. _Dimitri… I thought you were on my side!_

“C-can we just train already?!” Felix exclaimed, his face even warmer than before. _So much for not getting teased by my brother, let alone my friends…_ He groaned and stood from his place on the ground, removing his wooden sword from his belt.

The others chuckled but agreed, finishing what was left of their food before each going to the rack of training weapons to grab their pick. Each of the others grabbed a spear with a dull point, minus Glenn who also grabbed a training sword. They split into groups. Felix and Dimitri made up one group, while Sylvain, Ingrid and Glenn made the other. The groups took their stances across from each other and watched the other closely. Felix’s eyes flickered from one to the next, remembering what his brother had told him earlier: watch their hands and eyes. He glanced at each of their hands, noting the occasional twitch of their fingers or tightening of one’s grip. He then looked to their eyes, each of whom was looking between him and Dimitri, calculating and watching.

“There’s only a couple rules for our training sessions: don’t injure anyone too badly, and our goal is to disarm the other team.” Glenn announced with a grin.

After another moment of calculation, Sylvain charged forward with his spear, swinging it down on Dimitri who immediately blocked it with his own and followed up with a plunge upwards. Sylvain barely kept his footing. Hearing a movement to his right Felix quickly glanced over to see Glenn running toward him with his sword ready to jab. Felix readied his sword just in time to block when Ingrid came from his other side with a sweep of her spear near his feet. He quickly jumped, barely missing the spear and swung his sword in an arc towards his brother as he stumbled to a still. Glenn jumped a pace backwards then charged, swinging his sword horizontal which Felix parried and leaped to the side. Felix then sent a jab at Ingrid who dodged and jabbed back, grazing Felix’s side. He winced at the dull ache and swung his sword out to keep them at bay. Felix wiped the sweat from his brow and looked back and forth between the two when he heard a grunt from his side.

He glanced to Sylvain and Dimitri to see the former’s weapon fly from his hands and a very disheveled Sylvain stumble back.

“Heh heh, I’m out.” His red-haired friend laughed and went to sit in the grass on the side.

Felix grinned as Dimitri jogged to his side to join him, his lance held at the ready. They immediately jumped into a spar with their opponents, Dimitri against Glenn, and Felix against Ingrid.

“You’ll have your chance with me this weekend,” Glenn smirked, “For now I wish to test his highness’ skill in combat!”

They sparred, Glenn sending jabs towards Dimitri, and Dimitri swinging his lance in perfect parry and jabs of his own. Felix turned to his opponent who did the same and he charged her, thrusting his training sword forward. Ingrid swung her lance down, knocking him back a little and blocking his sword. He jumped back to catch his footing, bumping backs with Dimitri. The two of them blocked hit after hit, until Felix finally managed to knock Ingrid’s lance out of her hands. She put her hands up in defeat.

“Haha I’m beat. That was a good match!” She walked to where Sylvain sat and plopped next to him in the grass.

“Looks like it’s two against one.” Glenn grinned and the three of them took their stances.

Dimitri jabbed at Glenn, making an opening for Felix to swing his sword up to meet Glenn’s only for Glenn to tighten his grip and jump back. Felix then ran forward and swept his sord upwards which Glenn quickly met with his own. They held their swords hard against each other, neither one letting up until suddenly both their training swords went flying out of their hands and onto the ground, both of them stumbling to the ground. The brothers stared at each other stunned before turning their gazes to Dimitri who was lowering his lance. Dimitri noticed both their unarmed states and scratched the back of his head with a light flush on his face in embarrassment.

“Err, My apologies. I hadn’t meant to disarm you both… I’m still unsure of my own strength I guess...”

Glenn laughed and stood, helping Felix up as well as he just stared at the prince. Felix dusted himself off and ran a hand through his hair.

“I clearly still have so much to learn. You were great Dimitri! Man, disarmed both of us, I should train with you more so I can disarm multiple people too!” Felix grinned and shoved his sword in his belt.

“But the main reason it happened this time was because your blades were held against each other, I don’t think you’d want to disarm an ally by accident in a fight.” Dimitri said.

Felix pouted, “That is true… But I’m sure there could be situations where one of them wasn’t an ally and it’d be useful to disarm them both?”

“That is also true I suppose, a situation that let’s hope one doesn’t have to be in. It’d be hard to be up against two groups of enemies. But I suppose it could be useful on the rare occasion that it could happen. Though… I only did it by accident, I need to learn to control my strength better.”

Glenn chuckled, “We can practice things like that just in case I guess, but another day. I think for today we can call this training session a success.” The older boy helped Ingrid up with a smile, causing her cheeks to redden.

Felix turned to the yard and started to pick up everyone’s discarded weapons and place them back on the rack. Once they were all put away, he stretched and joined the others by the stump to grab some water. He gulped down the cool liquid and set down his cup when Saria stepped out into the yard to hand them each a small towel to wipe the sweat from their faces. They all thanked her as she smiled and disappeared back inside.

“So, what shall we do now? It’s still early enough we could hang out?” Ingrid suggested to the group.

“That’d be great! It’s been a while since we just hung out together rather than just training.” Dimitri exclaimed with light child-like excitement.

“Felix still didn’t tell us anything about this girl he’s got a crush on.” Sylvain snickered.

“Sylvain leave him alone. If he doesn’t want to talk about it then we aren’t going to make him.” Ingrid gave him a pointed look and he lifted his hands in defeat.

“Fine, fine, I’ll shut up.”

“That’s a first.” Glenn quipped.

Felix sighed and kicked a stick in the grass. He knew they weren’t going to let it go, Ingrid may have been the one to shut Sylvain up, but he knew that she was just as curious as Sylvain was. Glenn, he knew was likely going to tease him about it later for all the times Felix would tease him about his budding feelings for Ingrid. Felix wasn’t sure how he was going to avoid telling his brother about his friend, especially how he met her. His cheeks warmed. _I wasn’t watching her…_

“Well then, shall we play some board games?” Dimitri’s voice interrupted his thoughts and he turned his attention back to his friends.

Sylvain and Felix’s eyes lit up.

“Oohh, Definitely! I love board games!” Sylvain cheered and pumped his fists in the air.

“Sounds like fun!” Ingrid agreed, clasping her hands in front of her.

“Count me in!” Felix joined, a big smile on his face.

They all scrambled into the house and kicked off their shoes at the entrance. Felix led them to a cupboard in the hallway where his family stored their board games and pulled out a couple decks of cards and a couple of game boxes and set them on the floor in the living room.

“You kids finished training for the day?” Felix’s father looked up at them from his book.

“Yeah, Dimitri disarmed me and Felix at the same time!” Glenn announced, causing Dimitri to redden under the attention. “Felix was his partner.”

The older man chuckled and flipped a page in his book, “Sounds like your training gave you all a few things to learn.”

“It was a great match!” Felix added.

They all happily agreed and started opening a deck of cards. They dealt out each hand and started playing any card game they knew how; Sevens, War, Slap Jack, Rummy, they played to their hearts content. The group laughed when they made mistakes and cheered when one of them won. Once they were done with cards, they switched to the board games.

After a couple more hours it was nearing sundown and they started collecting the cards and game pieces and putting them back where they belonged. Felix shoved the games back in the closet and turned to his friends who were pulling on their coats and putting on their shoes. His mother walked over to them and smiled.

“Are you three sure you can’t stay for dinner?” she asked them.

“We’d love to, but we gotta get home, my father’s probably already wondering when I’ll be home. But thank you for the offer!” Ingrid replied respectfully.

“I hate to turn down an offer from the lovely lady of house Fraldarius, but I need to be home as well, I had told my parents I’d be back around now.” Sylvain said with a grin, “But thank you for the offer.”

Felix glared at his friend, “Must you even flirt with my mother?”

Sylvain shrugged and stepped out the door with the other two.

“I thank you for your hospitality, hopefully we can all hang out again soon.” Dimitri smiled and waved as the three of them left.

Felix waved back and closed the door.

“Well, I’m going to prepare dinner with Saria. Why don’t you two go have some brother bonding time that doesn’t involve swinging swords at each other?” their mother smiled at them and went to the kitchen.

Felix pouted. Great, now he had no way to avoid Glenn’s questions and teasing. And as though he’d read his mind, Glenn grinned and ruffled Felix’s hair.

“You may have dodged being questioned by Sylvain, but I still definitely want to hear about this girl and we have brother bonding time to talk about it.” He smirked and Felix groaned.

“Fiine... If I must tell you, can we do so outside?”

“Whatever makes you comfortable little brother.”

The younger rolled his eyes, the pout never leaving his face as he turned to go back to the back yard, his older brother following behind him. Glenn plopped himself in the grass and Felix sat down next to him and started plucking thin blades of grass at his feet.

“How’s your side? I noticed you got hit in training.” Glenn asked him, glancing his direction.

“Its alright, the ache from when I got hit is nearly gone now. Might bruise though.” Felix responded, lightly prodding where Ingrid had hit him. He took a mental note to never get on her bad side.

“That’s good, not the bruising obviously.” He paused, “You did well in training though today. I look forward to our spar.”

“Really?!” Felix’s face brightened with excitement.

Glenn chuckled, “Yeah.” He rolled a small stone between his fingers, “Soo...” Glenn started and Felix cut him off.

“I met her yesterday while I was out training in the field.”

“Oh? That recent huh?” Glen inquired.

“Like I said earlier, I only just met her. I was training far into the field when I heard… s-singing… I was curious who could be singing in a field and saw this girl singing about flowers and picking whatever small flowers she managed to find. Then she noticed me watching her and-“

“You were watching her sing?” Glenn questioned him with a knowing smirk.

“N-no!” Felix’s faced flushed bright red at what he had revealed, “I wasn’t watching her like _that,_ I just- I was- curious…”

“Oh is that all?” Glenn patted his head, “Then what happened after she noticed you?”

“We played lots of tag and then watched the sun start to go down while talking…” Felix looked away, trying to calm his blushing face, “Then I walked her home and headed home myself…”

Glenn smiled, this time a smile that wasn’t teasing. He did like hearing about his brother and any friends he made. The idea of him possibly having a crush, which whether he was aware of it or not he clearly did, the thought made Glenn happy.

“So, what’s this girl’s name?”

“A-Annette…”

“Annette, huh? Well she sounds cute.” He grinned, “So your ‘endurance training’ yesterday was playing tag with Annette. You must have been trying really hard to catch her, based on all the grass on your clothes yesterday and the fact you were too tired for a spar.” He snickered, “Never could I have imagined you chasing a girl around a field.”

Felix puffed his cheeks childishly and grumbled, “Uggh, Shut up… She’s just a friend…”

Glen chuckled, “Alright, I won’t bug you about it anymore, I was just curious about her.”

“Don’t tell my friends about it either… I really don’t need Sylvain teasing me and giving me his ‘advice’.” He pulled up a fist full of dead grass and threw it, watching it drift with the wind.

The older boy laughed and scratched his head, “Don’t worry about that, I have no intention of telling him. And if you insist, I won’t tell Ingrid or Dimitri either.”

“Thanks…” he muttered and twiddled his fingers. “Soo, how are things with you and Ingrid?” Felix glanced curiously at his brother, trying to change the subject from himself and his friend in the hopes of less teasing and calming his rapidly beating heart.

Now it was Glenn’s turn to hide a blush, “Things are good… We hang out every now and then to chat and get to know each other more. Though we’ve known each other for years by now… yet it seems there’s always something new that I learn each time I meet her.”

“Oh?” Felix looked at him now with genuine curiosity.

“Yeah, like today; I didn’t know she was so good at card games, she was so confident and thoughtful in what she chose to do.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I guess I’ve never played card games with her, just board games. Might have to play cards with her more often.” He smiled to himself.

They sat in silence as the sun lowered itself for the night. The breeze rustled the trees and some small birds could be heard chirping above them as they settled in their nests for the night. Felix threw more dead grass and just kept watching it flutter about back to the ground. His mind kept jumping from one thought to another; he tried to focus on one thought but gave up and just let his mind wander. If he was honest with himself, he had liked just talking to Glenn rather than just sparring with him like they usually did. The teasing bugged him but it wasn’t anywhere near as annoying as Sylvain’s and his brother knew when to stop. He looked up at Glenn as Glenn stood and ruffled his hair with a grin.

“What do you say we go help mom with dinner? See what she has planned and see if we can prove Ingrid wrong?”

Felix’s eyes lit up and he grinned, jumping to his feet, “Alright! Let’s go help mother cook!” he bolted inside, Glenn following behind him.

Their dinner that night, was a little burned and over seasoned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter was alright, I had wanted to have it up Thursday, but I didn't feel great so it got delayed to today instead. My apologies! >.< I hope you guys like this chapter! I'm always happy to hear your thoughts. ^^ Felannie <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sylvain comforts Felix with some wise words, the duo get's into one of Sylvain's messes, and Felannie has a tea party. ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 is up! Here's some Sylvain shenanigans and cute Felannie moments for you ^^

Felix couldn’t believe he had lost. He had practiced so much! And in their training session with his friends a few days ago he felt like he had improved a lot and could finally take on his brother. But when it came to their spar Saturday morning, well he had his sword handed to him. He felt like he had failed in so many ways, but mainly as a swordsman and as the brother of a knight. 

What could’ve gone wrong? Was he not yet fast enough? Was he somehow still poor in skill? But he’s been training for years! Was he just clumsy? He had tripped a couple times…

Felix balled his fists around the edges of his shirt as he walked through the streets, tears pricked at his eyes and he grit his teeth together as he tried to hold back his tears. He kept walking, ignoring anyone who tried to approach him in the town. People were bustling about everywhere, greeting each other and setting up stalls to present their wares, and he kept walking. Some of the adults near would call out to him to ask if he was alright or to offer him sweets to make him feel better, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. He was too embarrassed. Those who recognized Felix, knew this, and let him be. Some of the townsfolk knew the young swordsman in training would often spar with his brother the knight and would be rather upset about losing afterwards. They came to know to just let him walk and he’d be fine.

Felix didn’t know when he had started walking the direction he was, but before he knew it, he was standing in front of the doors to the House of Gautier. He gazed up at the large house in front of him. It had grey stone walls around the large wooden door and the windows were adorned with dark red curtains on the inside. Felix sniffed and wiped his eyes before lifting a fist to knock on the door then dropped his hand to his side and wiped another tear from his eye when the door creaked open. He looked up to see the tall imposing figure of Sylvain’s older brother and he shrunk into himself a little as the older man glared down at him menacingly. The man was tall and burly with wild red hair and copper eyes, a couple scars on his face. He gave off an air to stay out of his way or you wouldn’t see tomorrow. Felix stepped one of his feet back with an overwhelming urge to run, his heart pounding in his chest and tears threatening to fall.

“What do you want? Or did you knock just for shits and giggles with the plan of running off?” The man growled.

Felix gulped and was about to turn around to leave when he suddenly felt his feet leave the ground as he was lifted up by the front of his shirt.

“Well? You going to answer, or what?” the man snarled at him.

“W-wrong house…” Felix managed to let out, hoping that’d get him freed.

Suddenly a deep voice came from behind the menacing man’s form-

“Miklan! Put down Rodrigue’s son! What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Another tall man appeared, his red hair pulled back and his stance strong. He glared at the man called Miklan currently holding Felix by his collar, while Miklan glared back and finally dropped hold of Felix. Felix stumbled onto his rear and stared at his feet as Sylvain’s older brother left the doorway grumbling something about ‘noble brats’. The other man let out a heavy sigh and helped Felix up.

“Sorry about that Felix, he’s like that towards everyone.”

Felix dusted off his pants as Sylvain came running down the stairs.

“Felix!” He came to a stop in front of him and the Margrave, “Felix, what are you doing here? Not that it’s not good to see you, I just wasn’t expecting… a visit…” His words trailed off as he came closer and saw Felix’s face; his eyes lightly red and his mouth set in a pout as he looked away with tears pricking at his eyes. “Why don’t we go for a walk.” He suggested.

Felix just nodded and wiped his face on his arm.

“Father, would it be alright if I hung out with Felix for a bit?”

“That is fine with me, son, just be back before your lesson at 1.” The Margrave nodded and went back into the house, closing the door behind him.

Felix sniffed and started following Sylvain into town.

“So, I’m assuming the tears aren’t because of my brother, and are because you lost to Glenn again?” Sylvain question.

Felix flinched at the ‘again’ and the fact that Sylvain knew exactly why he was upset. Was it that easy to know? Did it happen that often? He balled his hands on the bottom of his shirt and grit his teeth.

“Y-yeah…”

And he told Sylvain all about his spar with his brother and how he couldn’t seem to get a good hit in. Or how he’d miss and trip. Or when he had almost got a hit in but then messed it up. And then finally, how he ended up giving Glenn the opening to knock his feet out from under him and disarm him. Felix hung his head.

“I’ve been trying so hard, and practice so much yet it doesn’t seem to be enough… I can’t win against him…” Felix grumbled in frustration, wiping another tear from his face.

Sylvain chuckled and shook his head, “You’ll get better Felix, we’ve seen how hard you practice. I’m sure Glenn knows it too.” He paused in thought, “In fact, that’s probably why he trains so much too.”

Felix gave his friend a questioning look. “What do you mean?”

The older boy shrugged, “Well think about it, Glenn knows you’re getting better and practicing really hard, and he knows that he can’t let you win easy, because you wouldn’t be happy with that. He can’t just let himself fall behind.” He looks down at Felix who’s staring back, hanging on to his every word. They pass by some freshly opened market stalls stocked with fresh fruits and breads. Sylvain buys them each a roll and an apple and thanks the shopkeeper, then turns to Felix and hands him a roll with his apple before continuing. “So, Glenn also trains hard to give you a challenge and so that when you do beat him, you can feel good about it and he can know that it’s because you’ve become incredibly skilled with a blade as well.” He bit into his apple.

Felix stared at his own fruit as he pondered over Sylvain’s words. “What makes you say all that…?”

Sylvain chuckled, “Because that’s how Glenn is, and because you’re his little brother. Like most older brothers, he wants to help you reach your goals and he wants to make sure that you’re strong.” He paused as he took another bite of fruit, “It’s his way of protecting you.”

“His way of protecting me…” Felix muttered to himself, a small smile forming on his face. He chewed on his roll while he rolled his apple around in his other hand. He felt a little happy at the thought of his brother’s motivations, his seriousness in their spars, and his desire to make Felix a truly strong swordsman. Felix wiped his eyes on his sleeve and grinned, biting another chunk from his roll.

Sylvain smiled in relief. He was glad his friend wasn’t upset anymore and instead had a smile on his face. He was happy Felix at least had a brother that cared.

They continued to walk through the bustling town; Felix chewing on his roll, and Sylvain taking huge bites from his apple. Townspeople milled about with their baskets full of goods and their children running behind them, salesmen calling out to sell their daily wares. A young girl no older than the age of seventeen called out to them from a stall with a man who could only be assumed to be her father.

“Excuse me! Young sirs! Would you like to buy some of our tea? We have a wide variety…” she called out shyly.

Sylvain didn’t miss a beat and immediately turned to her with what Felix assumed was supposed to be a charming smile. Felix followed Sylvain to the girl at the stall a frown now set on his face as he was pretty sure of what was about to happen.

“Hello, and what tea are you selling today?” Sylvain asked her.

“U-um, we have some chamomile, ginger, Almyran pine needles, bergamot, mint, and sweet apple blend…” She listed off their tea selection, pointing to each one. Sylvain nodded as he listened and smiled.

“Hmm, how about if I buy one of each of the teas you listed to me just now.” He said as he pulled out his money pouch. Then, trying to sound smooth but also casual, “If I may ask, would a lovely girl such as yourself like to join me to try some of these teas? We could chat and get to know each other more?”

And there it was. Felix groaned, “Sylvain…”

The girl stuttered and flushed a shade red as she glance at her father. Felix also looked over to her father and gulped as the man look very annoyed and was giving Sylvain a look that if looks could kill, Sylvain would’ve died several times over. He tugged the red-head’s sleeve as he was giving the girl the money for the teas that he now held in a bag in his free hand.

“Thank you for the tea. So, what do you say? Care to join me on a date?” Sylvain asked and Felix heard the snapping of a board from next to the girl.

Sylvain finally looked over to the girl’s father and visibly paled.

“If you know what’s good for ya, you’ll stop hitting on my daughter, take your tea, and leave. Now.” The man growled, cracking his knuckles.

“Heh… Heh… Of course! W-we were just leaving…” He took a step back, getting ready to grab Felix’s arm and run when a new voice called his name.

“Sylvaaiin!”

Felix and the boy in question whipped their heads around to see Ingrid marching towards them, a look of great annoyance on her face.

“H-hey Ingrid.”

She came up next to him and grabbed him by the ear.

“OW! Ow, ow, ow!” He cried out.

Felix just watched, as did the shopkeeper as his anger morphed to a pleased expression.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop flirting with every girl you see?! Have you no brain cells for anything else?” she questioned him.

“You’re going to rip my ear off!” He whined.

“And? It’s not like you use them anyway; everything I say to you never seems to reach them.” She let go anyway and crossed her arms, turning to the shopkeeper. “My sincerest apologies for my friend’s behavior towards your daughter, sir. It won’t happen again, right Sylvain?”

“Y-yeah… My apologies…”

The group bowed their heads in apology and the shopkeeper just nodded with a grunt. The trio turned and left the market place, heading back for Sylvain’s house.

“So Felix, what brings you here into another one of Sylvain’s messes?”

“He lost another spar against your fiancé, so I was comforting him.” Sylvain answered for him.

“I see… and that involved flirting with that merchant’s daughter?” she questioned.

“No! That was after I made him feel better…”

“He told me some actually pretty helpful things…” Felix muttered, rolling his apple between his hands.

“Oh. That’s a surprise.” Ingrid blinked.

“Hey! I’ll have you know, I can say some wise stuff sometimes.” Sylvain protested.

“Wouldn’t I like to see it. Though now that I think about it, you said something surprisingly wise to me once as well.” She admitted.

“See!” he grinned in triumph, “Anyway, what are you doing here Ingrid?”

“Hmm? Oh, I was going into town to get something for my father.”

“Shouldn’t we go back to get it then?” Felix asked looking over at his friend.

“I can get it later, it’s fine.” She smiled and waved her hand dismissively. “It won’t be that hard to get, so I can walk with you guys back to Sylvain’s”

“Oh, alright.”

They continued to walk back through the town towards House Gautier, chatting about their mornings and Felix retold his spar with Glenn to Ingrid.

“Aww… I gotta agree with Sylvain, you’re getting much better, and I know Glenn sees it.” Ingrid assured him. “He wants you so succeed.”

“Thanks you guys…” Felix smiled, fiddling with his fruit.

“Aren’t you going to eat your apple?” Sylvain asked, giving Felix a funny look, “You’ve only been playing with it since I bought it for you.”

“I was thinking I’d save it…” Felix responded.

They reached the tall doors of Sylvain’s house and stopped on the porch.

“You guys want some of this tea? I only bought all these to impress the girl at the stall, but some of these aren’t quite my taste.” Sylvain pulled out the bergomot and ginger teas.

Ingrid rolled her eyes, “Of course you did.” She looked through the bag, “Oooo, I’ll take the mint! Ohh, you should give His Highness the chamomile! It’s his favorite.”

“Oh! You’re right, I’ll pass it on to him next time I see him.” Sylvain took the chamomile from the bag and stuffed it in his pocket with the other two.

“Hmm, I’m actually quite fond of the Almyran pine needles tea…” Felix said as he took it from the bag. He looked through the last of the bag’s contents which consisted of a pouch of sweet apple blend. Suddenly, he decided to take it too, shoving it in his pocket.

“I didn’t know you were one for sweet teas, Felix?” Sylvain looked at him with a raised brow.

“It’s not for me.” He replied, then as casually as possible, “It’s for Glenn.”

“Oh? I didn’t know Glenn liked sweet teas either.” Sylvain wondered aloud.

A small smile crept onto Ingrid’s lips, a twinkle in her eye as she looked at Felix, “Oh, he does. We drink some occasionally when we hang out.”

Felix blinked but swallowed his confusion before it could show. “Yeah, he doesn’t drink it often but it is one he likes.”

“Huh, learn something new everyday I guess.” Sylvain said to himself. “Well, it was great to see you guys again, I should probably go inside now.”

“Indeed, it was nice. I guess I should get back to running the errand I was on. I’ll see you guys later.” Ingrid grinned and stuffed her tea pouch into her pocket, “Thanks for the tea, even if it was bought for flirting, I will quite enjoy it.”

“Anytime!” Sylvain smiled widely.

“Guess I’ll head back. Thanks Sylvain… Ingrid…” Felix shared his own smile.

“Of course!” they both replied as they waved and the three went their separate ways for the day.

Felix turned back to the town streets and started walking through them with a little more of a skip in his step, his apple and the two tea pouches tucked in his arms as headed towards home. He wasn’t going straight home though, he didn’t want to go home just yet, there was somewhere else he wanted to go first. Someone he wanted to see. The air was cool and the sky the grey blue of cold midday. He hoped she would be there.

He quickened his pace, being sure to not drop the contents of his arms and kept to his path. People gave him strange looks, but he didn’t care, he had somewhere he wanted to be. The stone of the street clicked under his feet from his quick steps and he finally reached his house. Felix walked around the house to the backyard and into the trees where he usually would practice his swordplay and kept walking, looking around for any sign of the field. The grass crunched under his feet as he passed by tree after tree, occasionally seeing the ones he had left marks in a few days prior. He followed the gashed trees further and further till he reached the last one and he stopped. Felix looked around. _Which way had that field been in again?_ He thought to himself, eyes flickering around for a hint. That’s when he heard her, and he started running towards her voice. He ran through the trees until reached the end and saw her. And he stopped.

“Ohhh what to do, what to do! Shall I run or shall I skip! Or shall I just do both? Ohh what to do, what to do!” she swayed from side too side as she sang, “Oohh…” then twirled, “Or maybe I can just dance!” and she finished her twirl with her foot pointed out and a small flower held out in her hand as she appeared to smile happily. She then started dancing about while humming her little song to herself.

Felix stood watching, he hadn’t realized that he’d been doing it till she had finished singing, but he couldn’t seem to remove his eyes from her dancing about in the field. His little heart raced in his chest at the sight of her flitting about, her orange hair swishing around her shoulders and a bright smile on her face. He almost found himself wanting to dance about with her. Without realizing it he had taken a step forward, causing the leaves and grass under his feet to crinkle, catching her attention. He froze in place when her blue eyes met his golden ones, and he immediately felt a blush rise to his cheeks.

“F-Felix?!” She stuttered out a cry, her cheeks flushed a pretty pink hue.

“I-I… uh…” he stumbled on his words.

“You were w-watching me again, weren’t you?” she pouted, her hands clutching at her dress in embarrassment.

“M-maybe…” he admitted, his blush reaching his ears as he tried to hide it in his collar.

“Ohh.. you’re evil Felix! I-I bet you’re planning to tell all your friends about the weird girl who sings silly songs in a field, aren’t you?” she accused, puffing out her cheeks.

Felix’s eyes widened as he shook himself out of his daze, “W-what, no! I had no such intention.”

“Surrre you didn’t… Ohh, people will definitely make fun of me now…” she mumbled mournfully.

“N-no they won’t! And I wasn’t planning on telling anyone, I promise.” His words rushed out of his mouth and his face burned. “H-here!” He thrust out his hand with the pouch of sweet apple blend tea.

Annette blinked and walked closer to him, peering at the contents of his hand, “A sweet tea?” She looked up at him, curiosity etched in her bright eyes.

“A friend of mine bought too much tea and gave me these… I’m not a huge fan of sweet things but I thought maybe you… would like it…?” He shyly glanced up at her face, “I was also thinking that I wanted to hang out with you again… so maybe, we could drink some tea together…? I have this apple too, we could cut it up as a snack…” he nervously rolled the said apple between his fingers. _What is this weird feeling of nerves…?_

The pink of her cheeks darkened slightly and she smiled brightly, “Oh! Sure, sounds fun!”

“Oh, okay.” He felt a grin spread on his lips as she gingerly took the pouch of tea into her hands.

“We’ll want some more snacks though.” She giggled, “A single apple is hardly enough and I’m also hungry.”

He chuckled at that and then felt his own stomach grumble. _Oh right. All I’ve eaten since this morning is that roll…_

“More snacks sounds like a great idea. I’m also kind of hungry.” He agrees, scratching the back of his head. “What do you have in mind?”

“Hmm, weelll, I think we have some sweet breads and biscuits in our kitchen? Could even grab some fruit!” she suggested, getting excited.

“That actually sounds good. Are you sure it’d be okay though?” He asked suddenly unsure. _Would her parents mind?_

“Ohh it’ll be fine! My mother and father won’t mind, these snacks need to be eaten anyway.” She assured with a smile.

“Ohh okay.” He returned her smile with one of his own and followed her to the flat stones in the frozen creek.

They carefully crossed the creek into her yard. Nothing had really changed over the few days since the last time he’d seen it except that now there was a small log that had been skillfully shaved to have smooth rounded sides and the top was rounded into a sphere. The small garden looked like someone had tried to care for it to help it grow, but it was having a hard time with the lack of more sun. His eyes looked around the yard before trailing back to her as she climbed the couple steps to her back door.

“I think I’ll wait out here…” Felix said nervously.

“Oh, okay! I’ll be just a minute!” She smiled and slipped through the back door, disappearing into the house.

Felix sat on the steps and kicked his feet up and down as he waited, playing with the apple and tea pouch in his hands. The wind had stilled and some birds were chirping above in the trees. He looked up at them to see a mother bird was helping her baby birds on a branch. When he heard the click behind him of the door opening again a few minutes later, he quickly turned to see Annette with a small basket on her arm and bright smile on her face. He stood and she jumped down the steps.

“I told Mother that I was having tea with a friend and needed some snacks, so she gave me this basket and filled it up with sweet breads, biscuits and fruits!” she announced happily. “She also let me borrow the tea kettle and some cups, we boiled some water for the tea.” She gestured to the contents of her basket.

Felix smiled at her excitement and they walked near the edge of the yard by the creek.

“Want to have tea here in the yard? I don’t want to take these things too far away.” Annette explained.

“Oh, sure, that’s fine.” Felix agreed and carefully took the basket from her.

They sat themselves in the grass around a different stump then the other and Felix set the basket atop it. They both gazed at its contents hungrily and laid out the little cloth and napkins that had also been stuffed inside. Once laid out, they each started pulling out the snacks and setting them neatly on the cloth, followed by two small cups and plates. Lastly, Annette gingerly pulled out the tea kettle that had a thin stream of steam leaving its spout. She carefully held the kettle while Felix held the cups for her so she could poor their water, filling each cup just below the brim. Setting the kettle back in the basket, she the laid out their snacks and Felix placed his tea pouch in his water to start his tea. Annette did the same, stirring it around with a spoon watching the water slowly change color.

“Soo, what made you want to come have tea with me?” Annette asked curiously.

Felix’s eyes flicked up then back down to his tea which was slowly taking on a brownish red hue.

“Like I said, I just wanted to hang out and I had this tea, so I thought tea would be a good idea…” _And you wanted to hear her sing…_ a voice in the back of his head whispered, but he was not about to say that out loud.

“Well yeah, but why with me? You have other friends, we only just met a few days ago...” she responded shyly, removing the tea pouch from her cup.

“Y-yeah, well, I liked hanging out with you that time… It was nice. Do I need any other reason?” he answered earnestly, his cheeks warming. “B-besides… You said last time that we should hang out again… I wanted to…”

“O-oh… Okay. I’m glad.” She paused, her cheeks taking on a rosy hue. “S-so… Does this mean we’re friends…?”

He also removes his tea pouch, “Of course we’re friends, silly. We’ve been friends since then.” He hides his blush with a sip of his tea.

“Really? I’m so happy! Hehe I hope we can hang out lots and lots!” she cheered, smiling, and sipped her tea.

“I would like that very much as well…”

Felix’s heart was flitting wildly in his chest which he didn’t even know was possible. He sorted through his thoughts in his head for some sort of topic to talk about and decided on the story of what happened on his and Sylvain’s trip to town that morning. He told her about his friend flirting with the shopkeeper’s daughter and how the man reacted, and he told her about Ingrid showing up and getting on to Sylvain for his reckless skirt-chasing. They drank their tea and she laughed along at different parts in the story. He loved hearing her laugh.

“Does stuff like that happen often?” She wondered aloud.

“Unfortunately, It’s a bad pass-time of his.” Felix answered, “He’s not just a flirt though, he is rather smart and sometimes even can say some helpfully wise stuff… he just likes to spend a lot of time flirting with girls.” He sipped another gulp of his tea, the liquid warm in his mouth.

“At least he has you guys to care about him, that’s a great thing.” She tells him honestly with a smile, finishing her last mouthful of tea.

“Yeah.” Felix chuckled, “He is a good friend.”

They finished their cups and set them carefully in the basket and Annette began divvying the snacks between them giving Felix a couple biscuits and herself the sweet breads. They each got some fruit. Felix removed a small knife from his pocket and started cutting his apple into slices, setting half the slices in front of Annette and the rest for him.

“Ohh, nothing goes better with tea than some pastries and fruit! So yummy for my tum-tum-tummy!” she sang happily.

Felix stared in surprise at her sudden singing outburst and felt a slight smile pulling at his lips and his face warm. Annette immediately froze in realization of her actions and quickly shoved a tart in her mouth, the jam on her tart the same red as the current shade of her cheeks. Felix blinked and grabbed one of his biscuits, also shoving it into his mouth so that they both sat in silence with mouthfuls of pastry. After a moment and they had chewed and swallowed their food they decided to take this chance to get to know each other.

“Soo, what’s your favorite color?” Felix asked in wonder, breaking the silence.

“Orange, though I also really like blue too.” Annette jumped at the chance for conversation to distract from her singing.

“Oh? I also like blue, purple is a good color as well.” he responded in thought.

“What’s your favorite animal? Like as a pet? I like cats, they’re so cute and fluffy!” Annette said as she bit into another tart.

“I’d have to say that I also like cats.” Felix answer and popped an apple slice into his mouth. “Other than studying magic, what do you like to do as a hobby?”

Annette thought about it for a minute. “Hmm, W-well… You’ve already heard me singing a couple of times… So I guess it’d be pointless to hide it.” She fidgeted with an apple slice, “I like to try to write songs… I’m not really good at it though, which is why I get so embarrassed when anyone hears me singing…”

“You don’t need to be embarrassed… It’s not bad…” Felix mumbled, staring intently at his biscuit.

If he had looked up, he would have seen Annette with the slightest smile of happiness on her lips.

“Th-thanks…” she mumbled back.

He snuck a quick glance at her as she chewed on her slice of apple then shoved the biscuit in his mouth before he admitted anything else.

“What about you?”

He looked up at her curiously, “Me?”

“Yeah,” she played with a grape, “Other than practicing the sword, what do you like to do as a hobby?”

He pondered her question in deep thought. _My hobby… Oh!_ “I like to go hunting.” He finally answered.

Annette’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Really? What do you hunt?”

“Mostly just small things like rabbits or birds. I’m still not great at it, I’ve only ever got one rabbit…” He admitted.

“But that’s still pretty good! What do you hunt with?” she gazed at him in curiosity.

“Darts.”

“Darts? That sounds tough…”

“It is… Like I said, I’m not very good.” He shoved another piece of apple in his mouth and grabbed a grape. “What about your songs? What kind of songs do you write…?”

“H-huh? O-oh, just silly songs… about different things… like food or something I’m doing…” She mumbled shyly.

“Those… sound nice.” He told her. _Damn, why did I bring up songs again? I’m going to say something weird again…_

“Y-you think so?” she peered up at him and he twiddled his thumbs.

“Y-yeah…”

They both stared at their hands in their laps quietly, fidgeting. Suddenly Annette jumped to her feet, her hair bouncing on her shoulders from the movement, making Felix jump in surprise.

“I’m gonna take my mother’s basket inside really quick!” she said in a rush and started collecting their empty dishes, the napkins and the cloth and shoved them in the basket. “I’ll be right back.” Annette smiled brightly and turned to head inside.

Felix smiled back and as soon as she was in the house, he threw himself backwards in the grass, laying on his back with his arms and legs sprawled out. He just stared at the blue-grey sky above and the birds fluttering through the air, hearing the occasional chirp or rustle of the trees. He closed his eyes and just listened to the sounds around him, letting them fill his mind as he relaxed. When he opened his eyes again a certain orange haired girl was back and standing over him with a slightly amused smile on her pretty face.

“Wanna play a game?” she asked, eyes bright.

“Sure, sounds like fun.” He smiled and got up to follow her to the field, her with a ball in hand.

Felix’s brain was trying to figure out one thing as she skipped across the creek and turned to smile at him:

Did hearts usually beat so fast?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter was good! I enjoyed writing it hehe Felix definitely has a crush that he has yet to be fully aware of. Please tell me your thoughts! I love to read them :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A birthday gift and a tournament!

**Great Tree Moon, Year 1174**

It had been a month since Felix’s last spar with his older brother, since Sylvain had offered his wise thoughts on the matter, and since his tea party with Annette. It was now the middle of the Great Tree Moon and Felix had been training more rigorously since that day. He’d train with his friends more often than usual, especially Dimitri; they had started meeting for training for at least three days a week, which luckily Dimitri didn’t mind since training was a pass-time of his. He trained by himself, using the trees as targets and he even occasionally trained with Annette. He never would have guessed that Annette also trained in wielding an axe. She was so small it was hard to imagine her carrying an axe, but she could and she wasn’t bad. He was gradually learning more and more about his new friend and would find himself drawn to her company. One thing he learned about her recently was that her birthday was in less than a month.

This is what had him sitting in deep thought and fidgeting with his spoon in his food during dinner. He had no idea what to get her. His brother was giving him an amused look when Felix finally spooned some soup into his mouth. He tried to ignore it as he swallowed his food and ate another spoonful. What did girls like to get for their birthday? Whenever it was Ingrid’s birthday, she usually liked horse-care products or books on chivalrous knights, but Annette was different than Ingrid. She wasn’t set on knighthood nor did she ride horses, let alone own any. She did like to read, but what book could he get her that she hadn’t already read? He thought in silence as he finished his soup. Once his bowl was empty, he took it to the counter and set it there before turning to leave the kitchen.

Felix stepped outside and grabbed a training sword and began swinging it in fast sturdy arcs. There had to be something. He slashed the wooden blade through the air in concentration.

“Hyah! Herg!”

He thrust the sword forward then swung it in a horizontal slash. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a deep breath then let it out. The back door opened and Glenn stepped out as Felix began slashing his wooden sword through the air again.

“Mind if I join you? Training’s more effective with a partner.” Glenn grabbed a training sword and faced him.

Felix nodded and they began training, swinging their blades quickly and skillfully at each other. Glenn swung his sword at him, their blades clashing, causing Felix’s feet to slide back slightly in the dirt. Felix grunted and pushed forward against Glenn’s weapon, his eyes and movements concentrated. He grit his teeth as his older brother also pushed forward, but with greater force thanks to his difference in height and strength. Felix slid back a few steps.

“So… What’s got you so deep in thought? Got a date?” Glenn questioned with a grin.

“Tch. No, I don’t have a date.” He swung his wooden weapon towards Glenn, who dodged and jabbed. Felix jumped back.

Glenn laughed, “Then are you so worked up about?”

Felix hesitated, unsure he wanted to say. He felt silly that he was so anxious about what to get her, but he couldn’t think of what she’d like. Outside of studying, she liked sweets and cute things. Felix didn’t know anything about stuff like that. He wasn’t one for sweets, and he wasn’t sure what would qualify as ‘cute’. He dodged a hit from Glenn and sent him a jab as he sighed. _I might as well ask… I’ve already told Glenn about her and he might be able to help…_

“What do you think makes a good birthday present for a girl…?” Felix practically stammered the question and glanced over at his brother in time to dodge a swing of Glenn’s sword before Glenn stopped in thought.

“Depends, what kind of things does she like?” Glenn asked back.

“Err… Studying magic, sweets, and cute stuff…” Felix responded, staring fixedly at his training sword.

Glenn tapped his chin with his forefinger. “What about a new tome?”

“She has so many since her mother’s a mage… I wanted to get her something different.” He paused, “I just have no idea what…”

“Well, hmm….” Glenn pondered aloud, “What about a charm?”

“A charm?” the younger quirked a brow at the other.

“Yeah, you say she likes cute things, right? You could make her a charm to attach to a bag she carries or something.” Then Glenn smirked, a teasing look in his eyes, “A piece of you she can carry around with her forever!”

Felix groaned and puffed out his cheeks, “Why would a girl who’s just a friend need ‘a piece of me to carry where ever she goes’?” he questioned slightly flustered.

Glenn laughed, “Just a joke. But in all seriousness, I do think that a charm would probably make a nice gift for your friend. Now the question is, what the charm should be.”

Felix charged and went to sweep his sword upward but was immediately blocked and skid back on his heels. He stumbled and fell to the ground with a thud. He pouted and stood, brushing off his pants and then it hit him; he knew the perfect charm to make her. He was going to need some help though, he had never sewn anything before. He put up his training sword.

“Thanks, Glenn, for the idea!” and he ran inside and looked around for the house keeper, Saria.

Glenn just watched in amusement and chuckled. “Oh, Felix…”

Felix spotted Saria in the living room putting something up and immediately ran over to her.

“Saria!” he called to get her attention.

The girl quickly turned to look at him and gave him a look of confusion. He wasn’t sure why he felt so anxious to make the charm now, her birthday was still a couple weeks away, but he just really wanted to make it for her.

“Master Felix? What’s the matter?” she questioned, quirking a brow at the look of seriousness on his face.

“I need your help.” He responded, “You can sew, right?”

“Yes, I have learned to sew…” her expression was quizzical.

“C-can… Can you help me to make something for a friend?” the question rushed from his lips.

A look of surprise took over her features at the request, but then she grinned and nodded her head. “Of course!” she walked over to him, “What would you like to make?”

Felix let out a breath and grinned back, “I want to make her a couple charms, a small stuffed blue cat and a matching orange one.”

Saria smiled and slapped her hands together, “I’d be happy to help! Let me go grab some fabric, thread and stuffing!” the girl hurried off to grab the said supplies and Felix followed her.

For some reason he was excited to make these charms for Annette, he hoped they’d turn out okay.

Once Saria had the needed supplies they sat in a room in the hallway and looked through the fabric. Felix pulled out a piece of bright orange fabric and one of light blue. Saria grabbed two needles and threaded them, then handed Felix the needle with the orange thread.

“I’ll sew the blue one to show you how, so you try to do what I do as you make the orange one. Watch carefully and be careful.” She said with a smile.

“Alright, let’s do this!” He stared intently at his orange fabric and needle.

After a moment they began. Saria started sewing the little blue cat, pausing now and then to show Felix what she was doing and he would try to mimic her best he could. His stitches weren’t anywhere near as neat, but they held the fabric together the way he wanted. He poured all his concentration into his work, stitching slowly. His stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth as he sewed the ears, trying to make them even. Stuffing the little cat charm was probably the easiest part as he just had to carefully poke the stuffing into the small hole till the charm was how he wanted it. Then he slowly stitched a face onto the charm. They had spent a good couple of hours sewing the charms and when they were finished the stars were out. Felix examined his work, comparing it to Saria’s. The blue cat had come out perfectly, while his was alright, he was happy with how they turned out.

“Well, what do you think?” Saria asked him.

“They’re great! Thanks Saria.”

“Of course! I’m sure she’ll love them. And you’re sewing actually wasn’t too bad, for your first time”

They both grinned and Felix took the two charms and wrapped them in a piece of cloth.

“It’s easier than I thought it would be, though I don’t think it’s something I’ll do much. It’s so tedious.” He said honestly.

She chuckled, “You’re not wrong, at least these were small, anything bigger would’ve taken forever!”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“Are they a birthday present?” she asked curiously.

“Yeah,” His cheeks reddened slightly, “It’s her birthday in a few weeks so I wanted to make her something…”

Saria smiled at his blushing face, it was the first time she’d seen such a look on the boy’s face.

“Ohh? I see, she must be pretty special then!” she teased.

“Saria! Come on, not you too!” He groaned, yet cradled the little charms in his hands like they were the most precious things in the world and could fall apart at any moment.

“Hehe sorry, I had too.” She laughed, “But anyway, she’ll love them! They’re adorable _and_ handmade.”

“I hope so…” he lifted the edge of their cover to peek at the little charms again before turning to the door, “Well, I better head to bed, it’s late. Thank you so much for your help, Saria!” he grinned widely.

“Of course! It was fun!” she waved and stood to her feet.

Felix left the room and climbed the stairs to the next floor. He turned down the hall and headed to his room when his brother caught sight of him and came up to him.

“So, how’d they turn out?” Glenn eyed the small bundle in Felix’s hands.

Felix uncovered the charms once more, for Glenn to see.

“The one Saria did looks much better, but I think they turned out pretty good.” Felix said, looking over the ears and faces of the cat charms again.

Glenn whistled in agreement and surprise, “Damn, they did.” He grinned, “Maybe you should sew more often, make more little things like this.”

“Definitely not, sewing is too tedious for me to make this a hobby. This is just for her birthday gift.” Felix said in finality.

Glenn laughed as Felix left and entered his room.

Felix closed the door with his foot then went over to his desk and set the two charms on its surface. He smiled at the small blue and orange cats. He was proud of his work and couldn’t wait the few weeks until Annette’s birthday to give them to her. He was sure she’d like them.

He went to his closet and changed into his sleep wear then went to brush his teeth. Once finished he climbed into his bed. He curled onto his side, facing his desk where the charms lay and pulled the covers to his chin with a small smile on his lips. After a few minutes of dozing off, he finally found himself in the embrace of sleep.

When Felix woke up the next morning, he felt refreshed and climbed out of bed. He immediately rushed to his desk and looked at the charms laying bundled in the piece of cloth. A grin spread on his face and he went to his bathroom to shower, brush his teeth and change. Once finished, he went to his desk and more properly wrapped the cloth around the charms so that it was like they were in a small pouch and tied a ribbon around the ends to hold it shut. Happy with his work, he slipped on his slippers and ran downstairs for breakfast.

He walked into the kitchen to see his mother and Saria cooking eggs, bacon, and biscuits. Felix grinned and grabbed plates and silverware to help set up the table.

“Morning dear, you seem to be in a good mood.” His mother noted with a pleasant smile on her face, “Good dreams?”

“Dreams were okay, I guess.” Felix responded, setting dishes at each seat.

She chuckled and started putting food into serving dishes that her and Saria brought to the table. As soon as she did Glen and their father also entered the dining area and they all sat at their seats; their mother and father on one side, and Felix, Glenn, and Saria on the other. They greeted each other for the morning and each gradually started serving themselves their breakfast. Felix spooned some scrambled eggs onto his plate and grabbed several pieces of bacon and a biscuit. Once everyone else had grabbed what they wanted, they began eating with casual conversation.

Glenn turned to Felix, “Hey Felix, want to join me and Prince Dimitri to watch a tournament? I was planning to ask you about it yesterday, but since you were busy, I decided to ask you later.”

Felix swallowed the eggs in his mouth and looked at Glenn with great interest and curiosity. “A tournament? Is there one in Fhirdiad today?” Felix asked, excitement glimmering in his eyes.

“Yup! Me and his highness are going and we thought you’d enjoy watching too.” He gulped down some orange juice.

“Oohh yes! I definitely want to see that!” Felix shoveled more food into his mouth in his excitement.

Glenn laughed and went back to eating his breakfast.

Once they were finished, the two boys made their way upstairs and to their separate rooms to change for going out in the chill of Faerghus weather. Felix pulled on a long-sleeved blue tunic and pants, his boots, and a hooded short cloak. He left his room and waited in the hall for his brother, rocking on his feet. After a couple minutes, his brother exited his room and grinned.

“Ready to go?”

“Definitely.” Felix replied with a light in his eyes.

They descended the stairs and started heading to the front door.

“Before you two leave,” an amused voice called behind them, “why don’t you take this basket with you. I made the three of you some lunch for while you watch the tournament and you get hungry.”

They turned to their mother and accepted the basket from her outstretched hands.

“Thank you, mother.” The two boys thanked her with a bow of their heads and broad smiles.

“Of course, dears. Now go enjoy yourselves and tell His Highness we say hello.” Their mother smiled kindly and left them by the door.

The brothers exited the house and started quickly making their way to the spot they were meeting Dimitri at. People were bustling about everywhere, which the boys figured was because of the day’s tournament. People always enjoyed watching some good spars in Faerghus. Felix and Glenn passed by many commoners and nobles alike, and more salesmen than usual. The streets were crowded when they finally made it to the town square and looked around for the young prince. They stopped anytime they saw a young man with chin-length blonde hair, but none of them had been Dimitri.

After a few more minutes they stopped in the middle of the square. 

“Here, climb on my shoulders.” Glenn suggested to Felix.

“What?! Why would I do that??” Felix protested.

“So we can see over this sea of people and hopefully spot Dimitri.” Glenn answered simply as though it was the most casual thing in the world.

“But that’ll look so silly!” Felix pouted, he knew he wasn’t getting his way out of this. “I can just climb that tree to see over everyone.”

“Because that’ll look any less silly than me lifting you on my shoulders? Not to mention, you could fall from the tree, while that’s less likely to happen if you’re on my shoulders. Come on, you used to love it when I carried you on my shoulders as a kid, and we were closer in size then which made it harder. This time it’ll be much easier.” Glenn grinned widely as he lowered himself down.

“Hmph… Yeah but I was like… five or younger at the time…” Felix grumbled but conceded and climbed onto his brother’s shoulders.

Once Felix was settled, Glenn slowly stood up straight so that Felix was towering over the crowd.

“Hah! You’re much easier to carry like this now, also fairly light.” Glenn laughed.

Felix puffed out his cheeks in annoyance and embarrassment.

“Well, do you see him anywhere?”

Felix paused his annoyed thoughts towards his brother and looked around over everyone in the square. Another couple minutes of searching and he saw Dimitri standing by the edge of the crowd. He pointed him out.

“He’s over there! By that stall!”

Glenn looked where Felix as pointing to see Dimitri looking around anxiously until he spotted the brothers and started heading their direction.

“Alright, he’s coming, care to put me down now?” Felix groaned and Glenn just laughed and lowered him back down to the ground.

“See, it worked like a charm.”

“Yeah, and everybody probably thought we looked ridiculous…” Felix kicked a small stone on the ground.

Glenn just waved him off and ruffled Felix’s hair.

Finally, Dimitri made it over to them, a little out of breath.

“Hello Glenn, Felix.” Dimitri greeted them with a smile.

“Hey Dimitri.” Felix greeted.

“Good day, Prince Dimitri.”

Dimitri turned to the younger of the two, “Felix? Was that you I saw towering over everyone?” Dimitri asked him with a slightly amused look.

“Tch, it was Glenn’s idea!”

Dimitri and Glenn laughed and started walking to the tournament with Felix following beside them. They entered the grounds the tournament was to take place in and found themselves seats in the front so they could see without the likelihood of someone tall sitting in front of them. They settled in their spots and Felix tapped his feet on the ground in excitement.

“Who are the competitors? Are there a variety of classes participating?” Felix questioned enthusiastically.

Dimitri grinned and answered, “Oh yes! They’re all using training weapons of course as we don’t want any casualties or great injury, but they’re really well-made training weapons! Axes, swords, lances, even bows! Though only really in the fights that are two-on-two where the archers act as support, or in fights where both participants are archers. It’s really quite fascinating to watch the strategies everyone comes up with, and the skill!” Dimitri exclaimed, his eyes lighting up.

Felix was on the edge of his seat with this information, and a curiosity hit him,

“What about magic?”

Glenn furrowed his brow in thought.

“Hmmm… Magic is a little bit harder to use in tournaments where everyone else uses wooden weapons. I think that when there’s a magical participant, they give them a shield so that they have a way of blocking hits like they would with a wooden weapon. These are just tournaments for entertainment, so they don’t want mages to end up receiving too much bodily harm because they don’t have a physical weapon to block with. The mages are also to lessen the strength of their magic so that they don’t greatly harm the person they’re up against, or to use spells to try to put the fight in their advantage so they can use their shield, feet or hands to knock the weapon from their opponent’s grip. Since these tournaments go until one of them is disarmed, for a mage it means they’ve lost their shield. Luckily, all the participants are professionals, so the fights still go on for a good amount of time.” Glenn explained.

“Wow, they really think of everything…” Felix’s eyes were wide in interest.

Dimitri chuckle, “Of course they do, they must. As Glenn said, these tournaments are a kind of entertainment so we don’t want to see anyone actually get hurt.”

“This will definitely be worth watching!”

Dimitri and Glenn grinned and the trio settled into silence as the first fighters entered the grounds, their wooden weapons in their hands at their sides. The fighters shook hands with each other before taking position at their side of the arena. Felix leaned forward in his seat, hands pressed against his knees in anticipation as both fighters drank some water and readied their weapons. Then they charged.

Weapons clashed and battle cries filled the air as the fighters fought. The battle was intense and Felix hadn’t seen anything like it. Their skill was unlike anything else and their movements were fast and precise. The swordsman seemed to be keeping the axe user at a disadvantage, continuously pushing them back and blocking their every swing. But then at some point in the fight, the axe user found an advantageous opportunity and had the swordsman on the defensive. The axe wielder slashed and swung, hard and fast. Neither fighter lost their focus, neither seemed to let up or break a sweat. They didn’t seem to ever appear to get tired. Their swings and movements were powerful. Felix took note of everything. Their movements and strategy, their timing of different attacks and defense, their stances; he etched it all to memory, not missing a moment of the fight before him.

Before he knew it, the first fight came to a close as the axe wielder swung his axe downward against the swordsman’s sword, the sword falling to the ground with a clatter. The audience erupted into cheers and the two fighters shook hands once more, grins on their faces.

“That was amazing!” Felix cried in excitement. “I’ve never seen fighting like that, their skill and speed was incredible! Not to mention their timing for everything. They really are professional.”

“It was truly a sight to behold.” Dimitri said with just as much enthusiasm, “And that win! Usually swords have the advantage over axes, but that axe fighter strategized his win and claimed it. He showed that you can overcome disadvantage and weakness. And their continued friendliness after the match; they didn’t show any hostility from actions in the fight once it was over. Truly incredible!”

“Agreed, that was a spectacular match. I believe the next one will involve two lancers. Oh! And it looks like there will be a mage in one of the last couple fights as well, so that will be an interesting fight to see.” Glenn said as he stared at a paper in his hand.

Felix scooted over closer to Glenn to peer over his shoulder at the paper.

“There were pamphlets with the fight listings?!” his eyes gazed at the tournament pamphlet his brother held.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I got one the other day. That’s how I knew about the tournament.” Glenn said. “It’s got the number of fights, who’s in each one, and when breaks are. This tournament has four fights, so the break will be after the second battle.” He explained.

“Each battle will probably be about thirty minutes long as well, so the tournament will likely go for over a couple hours including the break.” Dimitri added.

“All I hear is that there will be two hours of plenty for me to take notes on for future training sessions.” Felix’s face lit up like a kid on holiday. He stared intently at the fighting space in front of them. The previous fighters were getting some water and putting up their training gear before leaving the arena to join the audience to spectate. The next two fighters entered the grounds, each carrying a wooden lance and they stood at their ends and stretched.

After a few minutes, the lancers quickly gulped down some water, shook hands, and took their stances away from each other. With the chime of a bell, the lancers leaped forward, jabbing their weapons towards one another. Both jumping back, they circled each other before charging again. Their lances clashed again and again and there were a number of times where they’d be seen dancing around each other, looking for an opening. Felix took note of how much they observed the other and their careful movements as it was different than the quicker movements in the previous battle. He was finding that these would be good not only for him to practice, but also for him to better understand and know what to watch for from future opponents. In Felix’s mind, everything he saw in these matches was a lesson, and while he was watching them in excitement, he was also watching them seriously.

The lancers were circling each other once more, then one of them leaped forward and swept their lance at the other’s feet. The other lancer almost lost balance from jumping out of the way which the first took advantage of and knocked the lance from the other’s grip, the lance flying into the air and lightly sticking into the ground. Applaud sounded through the audience and the lancers bowed and shook hands before walking off to get a drink and join the audience.

Felix sat with a huge smile on his face as the audience started to slowly disperse for the break. The battles so far were running through his head as he thought about everything. Dimitri and Glenn chuckled at the serious yet enthusiastic look on his face which shook him out of his thoughts.

“He’s in his own little world.” Glenn snickered.

“Indeed, only on certain occasions do you see Felix with such a look on his face.” Dimitri teasingly added.

Felix rolled his eyes at them, “It’s a great opportunity to learn some new strategies and moves is all. Anyway, what shall we do for the break? It’s probably still too early to eat what mother packed for us yet.” He peeked into the basket at his feet.

“I suppose we could walk around here, see what the town has going on?” Glenn offered with a slight smile.

“I agree, that sounds like a fine idea!” Dimitri replied with enthusiasm.

The three boys stood from their seats, Felix grabbing the basket, and hastened their way through people till they once more stood in the town’s streets. They strolled though the streets, checking out shopping stalls and street games.

“I’m surprised you didn’t invite Ingrid along to this tournament, Glenn.” Dimitri commented, “She would usually love to attend such events.”

“I actually did ask her, but she said that she was going to be busy. She was pretty disappointed about missing it, so she asked me to tell her all about it when I next see her, and to teach her anything I see in the fights. So I asked you guys to come with me.” Glenn answered a slightly solemn look on his face. Felix was sure he felt bad going without Ingrid.

“I see… Well then we shall make sure we all tell her what we saw as well.” Dimitri gave a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, we’ll make it feel like she was there too.” Felix agreed with a grin.

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” Glenn ruffled both their hairs.

They continued to walk through the crowds, stopping to admire the different activities that were taking place. There were games, fortune tellers, and craftsman to make personal goods upon request and would then deliver those goods once they were made.

The trio was eyeballing some of the craftsman’s premade designs when a very familiar voice called out to Felix.

“Felix?!” her voice rang across the crowd of people like a bell.

Felix’s eyes widened as he immediately turned towards the bouncing orange pigtails of Annette making her way to him and his friends. Her small frame weaved through shopkeepers and townsfolk, a smile on her face. Felix began to panic inside; Annette was here and so were his brother and Dimitri. He glanced over at Glenn and Dimitri who were still engrossed in the craftsman’s wares, then turned back to see Annette standing in front of him catching her breath.

“Felix! I didn’t know you were going to be at the tournament, though I should’ve guessed since you like these things.” She smiled happily, a hand fiddling with her hair.

“A-Ahh, yes, well my brother heard about it and invited me knowing I’d enjoy it...” Felix muttered, fidgeting, “Listen, Annette—"

“Hey Felix, what do you think of- Oh!” Dimitri had stopped in his tracks when he had turned around to Felix about to drag Annette off somewhere else.

_Dammit! I was hoping I could leave to chat with her somewhere else… Now I’m cursed with their future teasing…_

“What-? Oh.” Glenn now had also turned around and a huge grin made its way onto his face as he noticed Felix’s hand holding Annette’s wrist and the blush creeping up his cheeks.

“Oh! Is that your brother?” Annette pointed towards Glenn and Felix just puffed his cheeks and nodded. “Oh it’s great to meet you! I’m Annette!”

“It’s nice to finally meet you as well, my little brother talks about you a lot.” Glenn grinned and shook the girl’s hand.

A blush colored her cheeks, “H-he does…?” she looked over at Felix who was glaring at Glenn, his face bright red with embarrassment.

“Oh yes! Not _all_ the time, all the time of course, but quite often.” Glenn shoved his hands in his pockets. “Are you friends with Felix?”

“Yeah…!” She smiled.

“Y-yeah, she’s my friend…” Felix slowly collected himself, “Annette… This is my older brother, Glenn, and my friend, Dimitri.” He introduced them.

“Nice to meet you!” she beamed, then paused in thought. “Wait… Dimitri… Prince Dimitri??” She gazed at the blonde boy in shock.

“Ahh, Umm, yes. But, please, just Dimitri is fine.” Dimitri smiled awkwardly.

“Oh, umm! It’s an honor to meet you!” she bowed her head respectfully.

“The honor is mine.” Dimitri replied.

“Anyways… Annette, I’m kinda surprised to see you here, what brings you to the tournament?” Felix looked curiously at his friend.

Suddenly there was a twinkle in her blue eyes as she smiled up at him, “Since you don’t know, I’ll leave that to be a surprise”

Felix blinked, a baffled look on his features.

“Mind if I sit with you guys?” She turned to the rest of them, “My father’s going to be doing something else during the next round anyway, and sitting by myself is boring!” she pleaded.

“Of course! The more the merrier!” Dimitri cheered.

“Do you think we should start heading back now?” Glenn looked at a clock in the town.

“Probably, it’ll take a few minutes to get through the crowds of people, so it’ll be best to head there now so we don’t miss the start.” Felix said as he looked around them.

“Well! Let us go then!” Annette started to run through the masses.

“A-Annette! Wait up!” Felix called after her before he just ran after her, trying to catch up.

Dimitri and Glenn exchanged knowing looks then ran in the direction that the tournament was in.

Felix weaved his way through people, trying to not lose sight of Annette as he did. This felt so much like playing tag with her when they first met, it made his heart race. He ran and ran, not caring if he bumped into anyone in the process, until he was standing in the seating around the tournament grounds. He saw Annette and he bolted towards her back, sprinting, then grabbed her wrist when he had caught up to her by their seats.

“C-Caught you…!” He breathed out as he caught his breath.

She laughed and turned to look at him, “Caught me, huh? I didn’t know we were playing tag?” she teased.

His cheeks flushed and he muttered, “I just meant that you were running really fast and I was trying to catch up…”

“Hehe, sorry, I got excited.”

“You don’t need to apologize, weirdo.”

“Hey! I’m not weird.” She pouted playfully.

“You’re right, you’re perfectly…” _Cute,_ he shook his head in confusion, “crazy.”

“Rude!”

“I’m just kidding!”

They laughed and sat in their seats.

“Oh Felix! By the way, would you want to come over on my birthday? It’s okay if you can’t, I just—”

“I’ll be there.” He replied before she could finish.

She smiled brightly, a light blush on her cheeks, “Okay! Thanks.”

Glenn and Dimitri caught up and joined them, sitting on the other side of Felix. Felix set the basket at his feet once more and the four of them started to chat animatedly about the battles so far, the ones to come, and anything else under the sun until there was only a couple minutes before the third fight would begin. Felix was glad they weren’t teasing him, or at least they weren’t teasing him for now. He was sure that Glenn would tease him later. For now he would just have fun with everyone.

“By the way Annette, you remind me of someone. Does your family work in the kingdom?” Dimitri looked at the small girl with curiosity.

“Yeah, my father’s a knight in service to the royal family.” She fidgeted.

“I see! You must be Gustav’s daughter then, you have his hair and eyes.” Dimitri said enthusiastically, “The daughter of house Dominic.”

The girl nodded.

Felix’s eyes widened. He hadn’t known that. When he thought about it though, they hadn’t ever mentioned anything about their houses; they usually just talked about random things and played games. Felix found himself curious what else there was to learn about her, certainly a lot, but what? His curiosity was peeked, but he couldn’t ask now as the battle was about to start.

Everyone had grown silent and was watching the arena. Felix leaned forward in his seat, though his gaze was still fixed on Annette. She was staring at the arena with great anticipation, her hands on the back of the empty seat in front of her. Then, she turned to glance at Felix and their eyes met. She gave him a bright smile and pointed to the arena.

“Felix! Look, the fighters are entering the grounds!” she exclaimed with excitement.

They all looked at the arena as two people strode out and took a drink of water. One was a swordsman dressed in some different gear then the others, his wooden sword in his belt. The other was a woman dressed in a mage’s robe with a shield in her hand. Felix was staring curiously at the woman. _She looks so familiar…_ he thought to himself. The woman’s hair was long and pale blond and her eyes were a light blue… He looked over at Annette and then back at the mage… _Their eyes…_ His eyes widened and the battle began before he could ask the question that was burning on his tongue.

The swordsman charged towards the woman who immediately jumped out of the way and sent a blast of wind his way, just enough to push him back. And that confirmed Felix’s unasked question. He watched completely engrossed as the fighters danced around the arena, the mage sending wind in gusts and the swordsman cutting through them with his sword. The swordsman leaped forward and slashed his wooden blade at her and she blocked him with the shield in her hand, her hair whipping around her face. The mage then thrust out their arm sending a wave of magic after the swordsman. With each use of magic, Felix grew more and more amazed. And this was with her weakening its effects. The magical wind never did any physical damage, but Felix could see that if it were at its full power it would be terrifying to face.

The battle was an amazing spectacle. No matter the differences in the fight neither struggled more than the other and neither ever had greater advantage or disadvantage. The swordsman swung his blade and the mage knocked it away and blew him back with a gust and the swordsman charged her again. He slashed his sword at her over and over, each time met with her shield and a little wind to try to throw him off. Then, the woman pushed him back with magic and kicked the sword out of his grasp and on to the floor. The two straightened their stances and the audience burst with applause for the fight they had witnessed.

Felix, Annette, Glenn, and Dimitri were all on their feet clapping with excitement.

“That was truly amazing!” Dimitri cheered, “She was spectacular, they both were really, I couldn’t look away!”

“Truly magnificent!” Glenn added.

“That was incredible! That magic, I would not want to face it at full force!” Felix exclaimed in amazement, then turned to the smiling girl beside him, “Annette, that mage… was that your mother?”

“Hehe yup! That’s my mother, she’s a very talented wind mage. She had been invited to be a participant in the tournament because she’s known to be really good at magic.” Annette answered happily. Her smile was brighter than any he’ seen.

“That’s amazing! So, does she train you?” He stared at her with awe.

“Yeah, she teaches me a lot when she can. I hope I can become at least half as good as she is at magic. When I’m older, I plan to attend the Fhirdiad School of Sorcery! And then, maybe the Officer’s Academy!” her eyes were lit up with the excitement of expanding her training in the future, “Oohh, there’s so much I could learn at both!” She clasped her hands together behind her back.

“You could definitely do it! With how much you study and your personality to work hard, you can become as powerful a mage as you wish.” Felix encouraged.

She beamed and they turned to watch the final fight. The last battle felt like it finished quicker than the previous ones. The fight was between an axe wielder and a lancer and the fight was everywhere. Felix couldn’t tell who was at the advantage, but in the end the axe wielder won with a downward swing of their axe into the lance.

Once the tournament was officially drawn to a close with the announcements of each battle’s results, the four of them left their seats and started talking excitedly and then hungrily as it had now been hours since they last ate.

“Would you like to eat with us Annette? Our mother packed us some lunch and knowing her, she probably made too much.” Glenn offered.

“I probably shouldn’t, after the tournament was over me and my parents were planning to have lunch. My father’s planning to cook.” She answered honestly, “But thank you for the offer though.”

“Of course!” The older boy grinned.

“Well, I better go find my parents, they’re probably wondering where I am by now,” she paused, “It was nice to meet you Glenn, Prince Dimitri! See you later Felix!”

“It was nice to meet you!” “A pleasure to meet you!” Glenn and Dimitri replied in unison.

“You should come by sometime, I’m sure Felix would be happy if you visited.” Glenn suggested casually.

“Ohh, that would be fun! I’ll do that.” She grinned and started to walk away, waving happily as she did.

Felix had been looking through the basket and pulled out a sweet apple bread from its contents, setting the basket on the ground.

“Annette!” he called her, stopping her in her tracks as she looked over at him, “Since you can’t eat with us, at least would you like this bread my mother made? It’s just my share, it’s a sweet bread so…” he was now standing in front of her, the said bread sitting in his outstretched palm. “You know… just to tide you over till you eat with your parents.”

“Oh! Sure. Thanks Felix.” She happily accepted the bread and opened it to try a bite, “Oh my gosh… this tastes sooo good! Thanks!”

“Haha I’m glad. See you later Annette.”

She smiled, “See you later Felix.” she waved and started strolling through the streets to where her parents stood waiting for her, eating her pastry on her way there.

Felix waved back and watched her leave, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Glenn and Dimitri had been watching the exchange, smiles on their faces. They knew what was happening in Felix’s and his orange haired friend’s hearts, and they were silently rooting for them. The two boys turned away before Felix could notice their watchful gazes and started rummaging through the food basket for their lunches.

Felix finally came to join them in eating and the three of them decided to sit on a nearby bench with their food on a napkin in their laps. They ate and they talked.

And the teasing began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg, I'm sorry this is a few days late! I had a few things to do this week and I had decided to make this chapter longer since I won't be able to update till the week of the 13th. So here's an extra long chapter! I hope you guys like it, please tell me your thoughts! ^^


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The childhood friends go camping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! And here's the new chapter! :)

**Harpstring Moon, Year 1174**

“A camping trip?”

“Yup! Next week I’m going to have my first mission as a knight that will require me to travel and camp overnight, so I thought why not do a practice camping trip with you, Prince Dimitri, Ingrid, and Sylvain.” Glenn offered the suggestion with enthusiasm, “It’ll be fun and good as a survival training exercise! It’d be just a day of us training, hunting small game, sleeping under the stars, and watching each other’s backs. Though we shouldn’t be in any danger, the most we might have to worry about is some wild animals. And of course we wouldn’t stray too far.” Glenn tried to give what Felix could only guess to be a convincing smile, though Felix didn’t need much convincing as he loved the idea.

“Sounds great to me!” he paused in thought, “But… how long will we be gone?”

“Like I said, only a day!” then his older brother smirked, “Don’t worry, we’ll be back before Annette’s birthday~”

“Tch, I wasn’t worried about that…” Felix muttered, puffing his cheeks.

“Suurre you weren’t.” Glenn chuckled, “Anyway, I already talked to Prince Dimitri and he said that his parents gave the okay for him to join us since we won’t be far and I’ll be along.”

“Great! What about Sylvain and Ingrid?” Felix inquired, slowly growing more excited.

“They should also be able to join us. Ingrid jumped at the chance for a new form of training. She does really wish to become a knight.” Glenn shrugged, “And Sylvain is happy with any chance to not be in the same space as his older brother.”

“Sounds about right…” Felix grimaced at the memory of Sylvain’s older brother. _How could someone be so full of malice and hate?_ He shook the image of the man’s glare from his mind. “So when will we be going? Where will we be camping?”

A smile spread across Glenn’s face, “We’ll be camping in the woods just bordering Fhirdiad. They’re pretty wide so it should still feel like the real deal, but also not far from the city so that we shouldn’t find any danger. As for when we’ll be going, we’ll be heading out tomorrow just before lunch. That way we’ll have plenty of time to set up camp and fish for lunch!” Glenn finished with a satisfied grin.

Felix lulled his foot over the grass from where he sat on the stump, “Great! This will be great!” Felix gripped his seat, “Uuh… What kind of stuff should I bring for a camping trip? Surely not much, right?”

“No, you don’t need much. You really only need to bring something to sleep on, your sword and darts, and a fishing rod.” Glenn counted each item with his fingers as he listed them, “Everything else nature shall provide for us.”

“Sounds so simple.”

“So it does. I figure the hunting will be the hardest part of the camping.” Glenn poked at a snail with a stick.

“That’s true… My hunting skills still aren’t great.” Felix said as he kicked his feet back and forth.

“Well, you are still learning. This can act as more practice in that.” Glenn encouraged.

“You’re right, and practice I shall!” He thrust his fist into his palm, “Have you already let mother and father know?”

“Of course! They approve and just advise that we’re careful and avoid any signs of dangerous animals or poisonous plants. They even wrote down some things to look out for.”

Glenn pulled out a sheet of paper with scribblings written in black ink. There were sketches and descriptions of leaves that signify a poisonous plant or berry, and lists of what signs mean a wild animal could be near. Felix looked over the notes carefully, etching each detail to memory.

“There’s so much… Hopefully we don’t forget anything…” Felix said, feeling a little unsure.

“Ha! Getting worried now, are ya?” Glenn smiled, clearly entertained, then ruffled Felix’s hair in assurance, “I won’t let anything happen to you or any of the others, promise.”

Felix smiled to himself as his hair ruffled and he heard his brother’s words. His brother’s words of protecting him always comforted him, as did when he ruffled his hair. Not that he’d ever admit this, he was trying to surpass his brother after all.

“Well now, how bout we go find you something to use as a sleeping bag for tomorrow and then go eat dinner and get some rest?” Glenn stood to his feet and Felix did the same, a broad smile on his face.

“Right!” Felix exclaimed, and they went inside.

After doing some searching through Felix’s closet, they decided his old comforter and matching pillow would work well for a makeshift sleeping bag. They shoved the comforter and pillow rolled up in a bag for the next day and headed down for a dinner of potatoes, bread, and corn. Felix scarfed down his meal and followed it with some juice before heading to his room for the night. He brushed his teeth and changed before grabbing a book from his desk and climbing into bed. The book was one of Faerghus’s many tales; Felix only owned a few as he’d receive them as gifts from his mother. He read each page with great interest as he laid curled up in his blankets until he fell asleep. The book laid half closed around his hand next to him, and a voice sang songs of clouds and rain in his head.

Felix gathered together his camping bag that he had stuffed with his old comforter, pillow, and a change of clothes just in case. He strapped his sword to his belt and tied his fishing rod to his bag. Once he had finished getting his stuff together for the day, he peeked at the calendar on his wall where he had labeled events for the month and ‘x’ days as they passed till a certain event marked on the 9th. Annette’s birthday was the day after tomorrow and he had been getting jumpy as the day grew closer. He couldn’t understand why for the life of him, just that he was anxious and excited to give his friend her birthday gift. The two charms had been sitting neatly bundled on his desk since he and Saria had made them, and as her birthday drew closer, he would find himself looking at them more and more each day. He poked the small bundle on his desk, his finger sinking into the soft fabric then jumped when his brother knocked on his door frame.

“You ready to go little bro? I just finished getting my stuff together for the day.” Glenn gave him an amused smirk.

“Yeah, I just finished gathering my stuff too.” Felix indicated the bag and fishing rod on his back and stepped away from his desk.

“Alright! Then let’s go meet with the others near the trees on the outskirts of town, they’ll probably be there before us.” His older brother chuckled and strode down the hallway.

Felix closed his door and followed quietly behind Glenn down the stairs and into the living and dining area of the house. Upon seeing them, their mother came over to them and kissed their foreheads then smiled at them.

“You and your friends be careful and stay out of trouble, alright? Don’t forget that list we gave you yesterday. It’ll be useful to keep you guys safe.” She hugged them both and pat their backs, “Now go enjoy your camping trip with your friends.”

“We’ll be alright! We’ll be back tomorrow mother.” Glenn grinned.

“Yeah! See you tomorrow mother.” Felix nodded his head enthusiastically.

The two boys waved to their mother as they exited the house and strolled along the trees, in view of the town. Felix walked alongside his brother, glancing around now and again for any familiar face. They walked for a while till the town was far enough away that they could no longer hear the townsfolk. Just a few feet away were Sylvain and Ingrid with their own bags resting at their feet. As they moved closer, they could see that Sylvain was teasing Ingrid; about what, the boys weren’t sure, but Felix could make a pretty good guess. The brothers approached their two friends who immediately turned to them when they heard their approaching footsteps.

“Glenn! Felix!” They were greeted by Ingrid waving excitedly.

Glenn’s face broke into a smile and he waved back, quickening his pace. Felix sauntered over behind him, looking around as he realized one of them was missing.

“Where’s Dimitri?”

“His Highness should be here shortly.” Ingrid replied, adjusting her bag on her shoulder.

“Speak of devil.” Sylvain gestured towards across from them.

Felix and Glenn looked over to see the young prince sprinting over with his bag bouncing on his shoulder.

“I’m here! Sorry I’m late!” Dimitri called out and came to a stop next to them, “I was having trouble finding a couple of things.” He scratched the back of his head.

“No worries, Prince Dimitri, Felix and I just got here ourselves!” Glenn assured him. “So, now that we’re all here, we ready to start the hike into the woods to find a suitable camping spot?”

“I’m game.” Sylvain tightened his hold on his bag.

“Sounds like a great idea!” Ingrid pushed her hair over her shoulder.

“Let’s get going! I have to admit that I a little excited to be camping with you all today.” Dimitri chimed in.

“Alright! We’re just going a ways into the trees, hopefully we can find a good spot by a stream.” Glenn turned to the woods behind them and began leading the way.

Dimitri and Ingrid rushed to keep up and stay in stride by Glenn, and Felix and Sylvain followed behind them. The woods were thick with trees, the afternoon sun glinting through the branches. Birds chirped here and there as they walked further and further into the woods til they could no longer see the town. After a few more minutes of trekking through the underbrush, they came to a small stream of semi-thawed water. Even with it being late spring the temperatures barely reached high enough for anything to start melting and the most melting it did was just make the ice more slippery around the water.

“What do you all think of this spot for our campsite?” Glenn turned to the group.

They all looked around at the mostly cleared ground, save for a couple branches and rocks, and the stream. There were also some bushes and a fallen over tree trunk. Felix made his way over to the bushes and carefully looked at its leaves. He compared the shape of the leaves to those sketched on the paper his mother had given them. He gulped and turned to his friends.

“We’ll want to make sure we stay away from these bushes. The leaves and berries on it are poisonous.” Felix pointed at the bush and they all nodded.

“Good eye, Felix. Let’s see if we can mark these bushes in some way so we know to avoid them.” Dimitri commended him and began digging through his bag.

“Shall we set up our sleeping bags and start collecting wood for a fire?” Ingrid set her bag in the grass.

“That’d be a good idea, then we can fish in the stream for some lunch!” Felix grinned and pulled out his old comforter and pillow. He folded the comforter a couple of times so that it would make a good sleeping bag then shoved the pillow inside til he would use it later. When he looked up, the others had done the same. Ingrid and Glenn grabbed their fishing rods and went to the stream, Sylvain was collecting wood around their camp and Dimitri had grabbed his spear and some darts.

“Felix? Shall we see if there’s anything we can hut for later?” Dimitri strode over to him, spear and darts in hand.

“Sounds like a plan.” Felix grinned and grabbed his own darts from his bag and turned back to Dimitri.

The duo entered the trees and looked around as they strolled. They weren’t going to go far, as they didn’t want to lose sight of camp. They walked through some brush and then ducked behind a bush after they made sure it wasn’t poisonous.

“So, Annette’s birthday is in a couple of days, right?” Dimitri asked, glancing at Felix.

Felix jumped at the question and looked away, “Yeah... How’d you know?”

“Her father’s been talking about it all week!” Dimitri grinned, “He’s always most enthusiastic around her birthdays, yet also anxious about her growing up. He dotes on her a lot.” The young prince chuckled and looked around for any prey.

Felix smiled fondly at the thought then looked at Dimitri curiously, “What do you know about the Officer’s Academy?”

“The Officer’s Academy? From what I understand, it is a prestigious school in a large monastery in Garreg Mach where the central Church of Seiros resides. I hear it teaches in depth about battle tactics, weapon maintenance and training in every weapon form and class, including different forms of magic.” Dimitri paused in thought, “It’s strict and the Academy is hard to get into; you either need to have gotten in by recommendation, or paid their tuition fee which I hear is quite expensive. It seems most nobles send their children there once they’re old enough to attend, and many go there to train to become knights. To be honest, you may be going there in a few years yourself. I hear Glenn is for further knight training next year.”

Felix listened carefully and thought about Dimitri’s words. So it was common for nobles and aspiring knights to attend this academy, and it did in depth training and study for its students. He hadn’t known that Glenn would be going to attend the school next year. Felix wondered when he would be attending. He kinda liked the idea as it sounded like he would get some worthwhile training to become the strongest swordsman.

“So, do royals attend too?” Felix questioned.

“Hmm, I think so, though I think it is less common. I wouldn’t mind going though when I’m older. It could be quite the experience.” Dimitri rolled a dart between his fingers in one hand and played with the grass with his other. “Would you like to go, Felix? If your parents were to want to send you?”

“I think so. Like you said, it’d be quite the experience and we could receive some great training!” He fiddled with a blade of dead grass and watched it flutter to the ground.

The whole while they had been whispering, though probably not as quietly as they should have been for hunting, and when they stopped conversing a movement caught their attention.

A large rabbit hopped into view and stopped to nibble on some weeds. It was round with brown fur and the occasional white spots. The duo ducked down so that their eyes peeked over the top of the bush. Felix readied a dart between his fingers and stared intently at the rabbit. Another second and he threw the dart.

“Darnit… I missed…” Felix grumbled as the rabbit’s head shot up and looked around, alert.

“I’ll try next…” Dimitri whispered back and aimed his dart.

He eyed the rabbit and bit his tongue in concentration before throwing his dart and also missing. This time the rabbit bolted.

“We’re not very good at this hunting thing…” the young prince pushed his blonde bangs from his face.

They grabbed their thrown darts and ran after the rabbit. The rabbit was fast in hopping away from them and they had tripped a couple of times and so their clothes were now covered in dirt and grass. They dusted themselves off and looked around for the rabbit until they spotted it sitting and looking around. The boys ducked down once more and both readied another dart each. This time they tried to aim more carefully and waited for the perfect opportunity. The two silently counted to three and then threw their darts at the same time. They cheered when they both hit and high-fived each other.

“We did it!” Dimitri exclaimed.

“Ha! We got a rabbit!” Felix chimed in.

And then a fox came and dragged it off.

“Awww…” Dimitri sighed in disappointment.

“Come on… a fox stole it?” Felix cried in disbelief.

“Guess we should have grabbed it quicker…” the prince said sadly.

Felix groaned.

“Shall we try again?” Dimitri glanced at Felix’s miserable expression.

“Alright, lets try to be quicker this time…”

They luckily found another rabbit, and this time they both hit it on their first attempt. Once hit, they rushed to the limp rabbit and grabbed it before anything else could and quickly shoved it in a wrap they brought specifically for anything hunted. They grinned excitedly and rushed back to their camp where their friends waited with a fire ready and some fish cooking on sticks. They set the groups dinner on the grass and clambered over to the fire to join in on lunch.

“Everything looks great guys.” Dimitri sat on the other side of Glenn and grabbed a fish.

The group nodded.

“Glenn and I managed to catch quite a few fish for lunch.” Ingrid smiled proudly as she hungrily watched more fish cook. “Though we also had quite a few grab the bait and then swim off before we could pull them in.”

“I see you two managed to hunt something for dinner as well.” Glenn gestured with his fish towards the dead rabbit wrapped on the ground.

“Yeah, though our first kill was stolen by a fox…” Dimitri answered sheepishly.

Their friends laughed at that. The image of the boys killing a rabbit only for it to immediately be taken was an entertaining one. Both Dimitri and Felix laughed along with them a little embarrassedly and Felix grabbed a fish as it finished cooking to a golden brown.

“The fire wasn’t too bad to set up, or at least collecting the wood wasn’t. Starting the fire with some sticks, dead grass and rocks was a little more challenging than I though it would be. My parents and our housekeepers make it look so easy!” Sylvain said with a bite of his fish.

The group ate their food and chatted animatedly about recent events in their territories and training stories. Once they were done Glenn and Felix began prepping the rabbit so it’d be ready to cook later, and then they all settled into spending the late afternoon training together. They each grabbed their training weapons they’d brought and stood in different places near the campsite.

“Hmm, I think for this training session, we won’t be on teams and will just fight each other. I’m curious how each of us would fare.” Glenn said as he gripped his wooden sword.

Felix nodded and readied his own sword, as did everyone else, and they all took their positions. The first to charge was Dimitri, who went straight for Sylvain. Sylvain parried his attack and Dimitri knocked him back. Felix charged Dimitri’s back only to be immediately blocked by his lance. Felix jumped back as Glenn and Ingrid fought and Sylvain joined. Their wooden weapons clashed again and again and Felix jumped up onto a stump. Dimitri lunged and Ingrid jabbed, and Felix jumped backwards back onto the ground and swiped his wooden sword towards them. He grunted and dashed forward toward Ingrid as Dimitri was suddenly fighting Glenn and Sylvain. He narrowly dodged Ingrid’s lance before thrusting his sword at her side. He spun around at the sound of a swing towards his back and blocked Sylvain's Lance then swung his sword to parry Ingrid and push her back. Felix tightened his grip on his sword and swung it up against Sylvain’s lance, knocking it out of his grasp. He then turned to Glenn and Dimitri and quickly had his weapon knocked to the ground.

“Unf!” He stumbled and went to sit with Sylvain to watch the remainder of their friends spar.

“Man you took e out good.” Sylvain laughed.

“Yeah, then I was taken out immediately…” Felix puffed his cheeks out and watched Ingrid get knock out by Dimitri, then come to join them on the side.

“Those two are monsters to fight!” Ingrid exclaimed, “I could barely hold my own against them both.”

“Haha, you’re telling me! I have yet to see anyone stronger than these two.” Sylvain added.

The three of them watched closely as Dimitri and Glenn’s weapons clashed again and again until Dimitri had skillfully thrust his lance up, throwing Glenn’s sword into the air. The two laughed and walked over to the others and sat in the grass.

“Why are you guys staring at us like that?” Dimitri asked awkwardly.

“You two are ridiculously strong.” The three of them said in unison.

The group laughed and put their training weapons up in their bags. They then broke off to do their own stuff until dinner. Glenn was showing Ingrid how to make something out of wood, Felix couldn’t tell what, Sylvain was taking a nap and Felix and Dimitri decided they were going to clean their clothes in the creek from their hunting journey.

Felix grabbed his change of clothes he had brought and followed Dimitri to the creek and behind some bushes. The two removed their dirt covered clothes, checking again that they were where Ingrid at least couldn’t see them, then pulled on their undershirts and kneeled by the creek. They dunked their dirty shirts into the cool stream and began scrubbing them vigorously to remove all the dirt and grass stains.

“Heh, washing our cloths like this is actually kinda fun.” Dimitri said as he scrubbed at a spot of dirt that was being particularly difficult. “Ahh dang…” he sighed.

Felix looked over to see a hole in the shirt where Dimitri had been scrubbing.

“Well, that’s another shirt that’ll need fixing…” Dimitri sheepishly laughed.

Felix laughed and finished cleaning his shirt and set it aside to dry on his bag. He then grabbed his dirty pants and started scrubbing them best he could. Dimitri did the same. They scrubbed til they could no longer see signs of dirt or green and ringed the excess water from their clothes into the stream. Once finished they laid their damp clothes out on a bag and over a couple branches to dry and pulled on the rest of the changes of clothes they had brought. The boys left their other clothes to dry and went to sit by the fire to warm their hands from the cold of the stream water.

Sylvain’s nap was interrupted by Glenn who dragged him to start cooking the rabbit for dinner, which Felix and the others laughed at. Ingrid went to collect any berries that were deemed edible, using the notes that Felix and Glenn’s mother had written for them. Dimitri fueled the fire and Felix set up some seating for everyone using some logs. Once the boys were sure the rabbit was cooked – it was now really dark in color – and Ingrid had returned with all the berries she could find, they all sat around the fire once more and ate til they were full. They told stories as the sun went down, laughing and shivering at different parts and when the stars began to show they dispersed to their individual sleeping spots and climbed into their comforters. Felix laid bundled up in his comforter near Glenn and Dimitri’s and stared up at the now starry night sky.

“I’d say that this camping trip was a success, wouldn’t you?” Glenn whispered to him.

“Yeah, it went better than I expected…” Felix muttered with a smile. In truth Felix had enjoyed camping with his friends quite a bit, and it had served as good survival training.

The boys grinned and fell asleep watching the stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter is okay! Meant to upload this yesterday but my writing was a little bit slower and it was really late so I was having trouble staying awake which saddened me since I only had a page left to write x.x The next chapter will hopefully have a bonus! I plan to draw something for it ;) If I can't post it with the chapter (i think there's a way to post art, i'm not sure as I'm still new to AO3 lol), then you'll be able to find it on my Twitter @merm_rain where I will also post it! Thank you for reading and please tell me your thoughts! I love to read them! and omg thank you for y'alls kind words on this fic so far!! they make me so happy ^^ <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felix hangs out with Annette for her birthday and finally gets to give her his gift. What does Annette want to do for her birthday? Learn how to target for hunting from Felix.

Felix and the others had arrived back from their camping trip the previous afternoon, feeling they had learned much about survival and bettered their skills in tasks as hunting and fishing. They had been pretty good at avoiding any dangerous animals by keeping their eyes open for any tracks and had stayed clear of all poisonous plants and insects. His parents’ notes had come to be quite helpful in their camping. Once they had reached the town, they went their separate ways and, as Glenn had promised, they were back with most of a day till Felix would be going to visit Annette for her birthday.

This is what he was getting ready to do now as he stood in his room.

Felix pulled on a pair of his nice pants and a button-down shirt, then tied up his boots and tied his tie to the best of his ability. He pulled on his coat and looked to his desk at the small pouch resting on it’s surface. He strode over to the desk and carefully lifted the cloth bundle into his hands and nestled it into a bag hanging over his shoulder. He closed the bag and ran a hand through his hair before exiting his room and bounding down the stairs. He had promised he’d be there for her birthday and he wanted to be there in time.

He passed the kitchen where his mother was teaching Saria a new recipe, Saria happily following her instructions.

“Mother, Saria, I’m going to be out to see a friend!” he called to them.

“Alright dear, don’t be out too late.” His mother’s voice responded, a smile in her tone.

He heard Saria giggle, “Good luck, Felix!”

He waved, catching a glimpse of the knowing smiles on both their faces before he opened the back door and rushed outside away from Saria’s giggles and his mother’s smile. Why did he have to feel so self-conscious?

Glenn had already left for the day for some training and had made sure to wish Felix luck before he had left. Felix made his way through the grass and trees, his hands shoved in his pockets. Grass and leaves crunched beneath his feet with each step and he watched the light breeze blow around blades of grass and small acorns from the ground. He laughed when he saw two squirrels chasing each other up a tree into the canopy of branches above. Felix rubbed the back of his head and kept walking in the direction he had become so accustomed to visit his friend. Once he reached a specific tree, he turned in the direction that he new would lead to her favorite place in the small field and its occasional flowers.

He entered the field and waded his way through the grass and weeds, trying his best to not trip on any stones or sticks. He crossed the length of the field until he found himself standing in her backyard. The wind rustled the leaves and branches as he looked around the yard for his friend. Realizing she wasn’t out he went to the steps to her back door and climbed up them. He stood in front of the door and lifted his hand to knock, slightly nervous to actually tap his knuckles on the wood. Then, gathering his confidence he went to knock when suddenly the door flew open and he jumped.

“Oh! My apologies, I didn’t see anyone there...” came a deep voice.

In the doorway stood a tall man with a stern demeanor and long orange hair pulled back into a long braid down his back. Despite his stern appearance his voice was formal and held a kindness to it.

“What is your name, young man? Do you live near here? This is our back yard…” the older man questioned, his voice laced with concern.

Felix fumbled with his words, “O-oh, um, my name is Felix… Felix Fraldarius. I live just beyond the field and trees. I’m a friend of Annette’s… Err, I didn’t come to the wrong house… did I…?”

Felix looked around, almost feeling unsure, but the yard definitely looked like the one he’d come to many times to train and hang out with Annette. Which meant… The man in front of him was…

“Oh! Yes, of course, Annette did mention that she had a friend coming over today. I am her father, Gustav.” The man named Gustav introduced himself then looked Felix up and down, “Fraldarius… As in, one of Rodrigue Fraldarius’s boys?”

“Yes sir, I am his second son…” Felix fidgeted, nervously under the knight’s gaze, “My older brother Glenn is his first son and a new knight to the kingdom…”

“Ahh, yes! I thought you looked familiar… Oh, my apologies once again, I should let you come indoors.” The knight stepped to the side and held open the door.

Felix thanked him and stepped inside, immediately feeling warmer.

“Now please excuse me, I must grab some firewood for the oven and stove.” He bowed his head slightly and exited through the back door.

Felix bowed back and started walking around the Dominic household. His eyes followed the walls, taking in each painting that hung. He slowly entered the living room that was furnished with a couple couches and shelves of books, all around a large fireplace. He stared up at the massive selection of books and tomes, completely amazed at the selection. Felix wasn’t really one for reading much, but the sight still intrigued him. He wondered how many of these Annette had read.

Suddenly he heard footsteps approaching from his left and he looked over towards a staircase in a near hallway. A flash of orange flew down the stairs and then froze once in the living room. Annette stood in the living room entry way, her orange hair down and in waves around her shoulders. She was dressed in a light blue dress with black tights and brown ankle boots. Her blue eyes lit up at the sight of him.

“Felix! You made it!” a brilliant smile spread across her lips.

“Of course. I said I’d be here, didn’t I?” he chuckled, slightly amused by her excitement.

“Well yeah, I’m just real happy that you came.” She sheepishly played with a strand of her hair. “Did my father let you in?”

“Yeah, then he said he had to get some firewood for the stove.”

“I see! Oh! Look what my father made me for my birthday!” Annette held up a wooden doll in her small hands and Felix stared at it in surprise and amazement.

The doll was well carved with simple details on its face, had yarn for hair, and a simple faded orange dress. The shape of its eyes were well carved along with two small dents for the nose and a thin line for the mouth.

“Your father made this?” He asked, completely in awe.

“Yeah, he likes to make me a new one every year for my birthday. Wood-carving is a bit of a hobby of his.” She said, staring at the new doll.

“That’s quite the skill, it looks so good!” he continued to marvel over the appearance of the doll and immediately recognized something. _So_ _that’s what that little block of wood that had always been sitting outside was…_

“Hey Felix, come with me, I’ll show you around!” She eagerly tugged his arm, shaking him out of his thoughts, and pulled him into the hallway.

She pointed to a doorway and led him through it revealing a large kitchen with a brick oven with a fire beneath it and long counters currently cluttered in small containers of different herbs and seasonings. In the middle of the kitchen stirring some sort of mixture was a women Felix immediately recognized as Annette’s mother from the tournament. Her hair was piled over her shoulder and her eyes focused on the contents of the bowl in her arms. Noticing their presence the woman looked up at them.

“Hello, and who may you be?” The mage smiled at him, propping the bowl against her hip.

“This is my friend, Felix! He came to hang with me for my birthday.” Annette introduced him, “He also saw your fight at the tournament, mother!”

“N-nice to meet you..! Your magic ability’s amazing!” Felix stammered out.

The blonde mage chuckled, “Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the tournament. It’s nice to finally meet you, Felix. I’ve heard about you quite a bit from Annette.” She smiled warmly.

Felix flushed and looked over at Annette who was also lightly pink-faced.

“Well, I was going to show Felix around! So, we’re going to go finish that.” Annette said in a quick stammer.

“Haha, alright kids. Have fun, dinner won’t be ready for a little while yet, but I made snacks that you two can eat to tide yourselves over until then.” She strode to the counter and grabbed two butter biscuits and handed one to each of them.

They accepted the biscuits, thanking her, and went through the dining room where there stood a long dark wooden table lined with chairs and cabinets behind it that held the dishes. The two exited through another doorway that opened to the staircase in the hallway. They entered the hall and began their ascent up the stairs as they nibbled on their biscuits. Once upstairs they were in a large room with a couple desks and more bookshelves and two wooden doors on separate walls.

“This is a kinda study, or at least it’s where I study. My parents have their own study attached to their room. And over here is my room and that door goes out to our small balcony.” She pointed to each door then began to pull him to her door.

Annette opened the door to her room to show a neatly kept room with a large bed with blue blankets and more bookshelves along the walls. She really did enjoy reading a lot. On another wall was her dresser with a mirror and the door to her bathroom, and by her bed was a smaller bookshelf with more wooden dolls sitting on its shelves in different dresses. Annette knelt down in front of the small shelves and placed her new doll with the others at the end. When she stood she had a bright smile and then led him back into the large study.

“I’ll show you the balcony later, it’s so much nicer when the stars are already out.”

“I look forward to it.” He grinned and they sat on the floor in front of the shelves. “So, what would you like to do? It’s your birthday, so we’ll do whatever you want!”

She laughed, “Hehe, alright. But hmmm… what to do…?” she crinkled her nose in thought and Felix ate some more of his biscuit as he also tried to think of something they could do. Then she spoke up again, “What about playing in the stream outside? It’s melted a bit more over the last few days, we could splash each other in it!”

“That sounds great, though wouldn’t it still be fairly cold? I wouldn’t want you to get sick on your birthday…” Felix frowned.

“That’s true…” she twiddled a strand of hair between her fingers as she thought, “Oh! What if you showed me how to hunt? Like just a target lesson, we don’t have to actually kill anything.”

Felix’s eyes widened, “THAT’s what you want to do for your birthday??” He gave her an incredulous look. That wasn’t what he had been expecting at all!

“Yeah!” she paused, “Err, is that okay…? We can do something else…”

“No, it’s fine. Like I said, we’ll do whatever you want. I just wasn’t expecting that is all.” He hurriedly explained and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yayy! This’ll be great! A new skill to learn!” She clapped her hands together excitedly.

He chuckled and buried his hands in his pockets, “I gotta warn you, I’m still not really great at it, though it is easier with a target that isn’t moving which is how I initially practiced.”

“Its fine! It can be like a practice for both of us, just even more so for me since I’ve never done it.”

“Haha Alright, what would you like to use to hunt with?” he eyed her curiously.

“Hmmm, well, you use darts normally, right?”

“Yup.”

“Then let’s try that! We can carve a target into one of the trees too!” She grinned and started pulling him back down the stairs.

Felix laughed and followed her into the hallway and out the back door. She ran over to a small weapon rack of training gear and began rummaging. Felix looked at the trees in the yard and picked out one to carve a target into. He pulled out his small pocket knife and started carving into the bark with careful gouges with the blade. Once he had carved a target that he was okay with, he turned to Annette who now held a small pouch in her hands. He went to her side and peered into the pouch to see an assortment of little darts.

“Shall we begin?” He glanced at her and she nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes sir!”

He laughed and took the pouch of darts from her hands.

“Alright, let’s stand a few feet back from the target. After all, when hunting you won’t be very close to the prey you’re hunting.” He instructed and she followed his instructions.

Annette looked at the target and walked away from it till she was a good few feet away. Felix walked up to her then to stand next to her and removed a dart from the pouch. He held the dart in his right hand and lifted his hand so that his arm was making a ninety-degree angle to his shoulder.

“Okay, so you want to hold the dart up like this for a good throw.” He paused as she also grabbed a dart and held it up to match his position.

“Like this?”

“Yeah! Just like that.”

She beamed.

“Now, you want to keep your eye trained on the target.” He stared at the target across from them. “First watch me.”

“Okay!”

Annette watched him carefully, his stance, his sharp eyes. She etched it to memory for when it was her turn. He eyed the target, the dart held up, and when he was confident he could hit he threw the dart across the yard with all the force he could. Her eyes followed the dart as it soared and struck the target on the tree. Felix grinned in relief when it hit.

“Oohh, that was awesome, Felix! You’re so good at this!” She cheered and clapped.

“Thanks…” a sheepish smile pulled at his lips, “Alright, now you try!”

“Okay!” she held up her dart in position again and trained her eyes on the target, “Okay Annette, you can do this.” She encouraged herself.

Felix smiled as he watched her. Her face was filled with determination, her hair blown slightly by the breeze and her hand steady as it held up the dart. Then, after another couple seconds, she launched her hand forward, throwing the dart as hard as she could towards the tree. His eyes widened at the amount of force behind her throw.

To their surprise the dart hit just outside the target.

“Awww, I was so sure it’d hit…” a pout formed on her lips.

“It was really close though, and that throw was really good!” Felix reassured her.

She blushed at the praise.

“Th-thanks!” She grabbed another dart from the pouch and took aim again.

“Maybe try to hold it a little higher.” He suggested remembering that she is shorter than he is, and she rose her hand higher slightly. “Alright, then like before, keep your eye on the target and throw with all your might!”

She nodded and stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth in concentration. Felix blushed at the cute expression. She stared down the target then threw the dart with as much force as the previous, the dart striking nearly the center.

Felix’s eyes widened and flickered over to Annette. She stared in shock at the dart then broke into a bright smile.

“I got it so close that time! Did you see?” she cheered and giggled, dancing where she stood.

Felix grinned watching her, “You did it!”

They high fived and cheered and after a minute they continued practicing their aim and throws with darts. Felix was impressed with Annette’s throw ability. After her second throw, every dart afterwards had made it into the target and some even hit the center. He’d never seen Annette so excited.

Once the sun began to set, they collected the darts and put them back in the pouch and on the weapon rack. They quickly made their way back inside where Annette’s mother called them to the table for dinner and tea with some pastries she had made for Annette’s birthday. Felix had tried to say that he was fine as he didn’t want to impose on their dinner, but they all insisted. Annette most strongly asked that he eat with them so he accepted and thanked them greatly for the meal. The meal consisted of salad and seasoned beef with sides of a fruit medley and veggies. The tea was a blend he didn’t recognize but found he enjoyed and the pastries were surprisingly not as sweet as he expected. Her parents were kind and welcoming and they talked fairly easily through out the meal.

Now, his belly full and content, he followed Annette as she led him back up the stairs to the second floor and out onto the balcony she had pointed out to him earlier during his tour. They walked out into the cool air of the evening, the stars making their appearance across the night sky. Felix stared in awe at the view of the glistening stars above the trees.

“See, told you it looks better at night!” Annette smiled happily.

“It really does. Such a great view...” he trailed off as he watched the stars twinkle.

“Thanks for spending my birthday with me, and for teaching me how to aim darts for hunting.” Annette smiled and clasped her hands together, “It was a lot of fun!”

“Anytime, I had fun as well. And your skill at throwing darts is amazing, I think you may be better than me to be honest.” He blushed slightly embarrassed.

“Hehe thanks! Though you’re pretty good too. I couldn’t have gotten so good without a teacher like you!” she complimented and he flushed pinker.

He stared off then remembered the bundle in his bag.

“Oh! Uh… Annette,” he started hurriedly rummaging through his bag, causing Annette to look at him curiously. His hand found what he was looking for and he gingerly removed the small bundle from inside. “Here, it’s my birthday present for you.” He held out the ribbon tied bundle. _Can’t believe I almost forgot!_

“Aw, you didn’t have to get me anything. I’m just happy I got to hang out with you...” She smiled, her cheeks lightly flushed as she accepted the gift into her own hands.

Annette carefully pulled the ribbon to undo it and the fabric fell open across her palm revealing the two plush charms. Her eyes widened and a smile spread across her face as she looked at them and flipped them over in her hand.

“Felix… they’re so cute! Where’d you get these?” She looked up at him with the brightest smile he’d ever seen.

“I-I made them… err, well, one of them... a friend made the other one to show me how since I wanted to make two anyway…” Felix felt his face heat up.

“You _made_ these?!” she stared at him with mixtures of surprise, awe, and pure happiness.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Felix… I love them! And they’re so well made! Thank you so much!”

Suddenly Felix found himself in a tight embrace as Annette had thrown her arms around him. His eyes widened and he was sure his face would light aflame from the blush on his cheeks. He slowly returned the hug.

“I-it was nothing…” He managed to mumble out.

The next second she pulled away, her face pink and a brilliant smile, as she hugged the blue and orange charms to her chest.

“W-well, I should probably head home… it is dark and I promised I wouldn’t be out too late…” Felix rubbed the back of his head as he tried to force the blush off his face.

“I guess it is getting late now, huh?” she laughed.

The two took one last look at the stars, then exited the balcony into the study again. They made their way down the stairs and to the back door, Annette’s parents joining them outside.

“Heading home now, Felix?” her mother looked at him and he nodded.

“Would you like one of us to walk with you? It is late and I’d hate for you to become lost or get hurt.” Her father offered, a concerned furrow in his brow.

“It’s alright, I don’t live far. The walk is fairly short.” Felix promised them.

Gustav nodded his head, “Alright, if you insist. Do be careful on your way back.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you, young Felix. Feel free to come by anytime!” Mrs. Dominic gave a warm smile.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” He bowed his head slightly to the both of them.

“See you later, Felix! Be safe getting home, okay?” Annette gave him a worried look, clutching her new plush charms to her chest.

“I will, I promise. See you later, Annette.” Felix offered the most reassuring smile he could muster and waved at the Dominic family as he turned to leave.

They all waved back, Annette’s most energetically, and Felix began his trek through the trees under the stars, the very stars he and Annette had been just looking at. The image of Annette’s smile, her embrace, and the charms he made her held tight too her chest like the most precious things in the world; these never left his mind on his way home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So to be honest, I wasn't sure what to have them do for her birthday at first, and then I decided, why not have Felix teach her the beginnings of how to hunt? Annette loves to learn new things after all haha  
> Also, there be the promised bonus of a piece of art to go with this chapter! I hope you guys like it! I enjoyed drawing it hehe ^^ <3 Thank you all so much for reading!   
> And wow, Happy one year anniversary to Fire Emblem Three Houses!! The game is amazing and I can't put into words how much I love it! The stories, the characters, the music, the art, the ships!! I love it all <3 and FE3H community has been lovely with all the art, fics, and love for the characters and game! Here's to another wonderful gaming experience!! <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felix isn't used to Glenn being gone for extended periods of time and goes to spend some time with friends, finds himself in one of Sylvain's shenanigans... and ends up trying a sweet dessert.

It had been a long few days since Glenn had left for his first long mission as a knight. All he had brought with him was his swordsman armor, his swords, and a sleeping bag and he wasn’t due to come back for at last a few more days, if not longer. Felix couldn’t get used to his brother being gone for long periods of time. It was weird to not see him each day at meals and listen to his teasing, to not hear him training outside till the late afternoon sun shone through the trees.

And so, Felix wasn’t sure what to do when he was at home and done training for the day. Sometimes, he’d just decide to do more training until he was so tired he could barely stand, and other times he would go and find Sylvain and hang out with his friends. They would play games or venture into town to eye the shops or see what activities the townspeople had going on. On one such occasion they had gotten chased away due to Sylvain’s incessant flirting, and another time a cook at a food stall had been so happy to see Ingrid enthusiastic about the chicken skewers he was making that he gave a free sample to her to try. Ingrid had found them so delicious that she bought more than she could eat and they all had ended up eating them as their lunch.

Felix laid sprawled on his bed on his stomach with his feet kicked up in the air as his eyes skimmed a book his mother had recently given him. It was another one of those books about knights and chivalry. He didn’t really understand some of it. Dying honorably? Working for glory? He understood being loyal to your king, and he would certainly do all he could to protect his friends, territory, and kingdom, but Felix didn’t care about ‘honor’ and ‘glory’. He didn’t see the point. If he did become a knight one day, like his brother, it wouldn’t be because of some so-called honor and glory. It’d be to protect those he cared about in any way he could.

He continued to flip through the pages, reading each thoroughly. He still found the books interesting, mainly the fight scenes and tactics. And they were something his mother enjoyed. He made sure he treated the books carefully so he didn’t accidentally tear the pages. He swung his feet in the air and sighed as he came to the end of the book. Shutting the book, he rolled over and slid off his bed onto his feet and set the book on his desk before pulling on his boots. Felix laced his boots, threw on his jacket and shoved a few things into his pockets before leaving his room and running down the stairs. He was going to visit Dimitri.

He rushed through the house and out the front door and began making his way through town up to the palace. The town was quieter today with less townsfolk milling about, meaning less interruption on his journey to the palace. No one stopped him as he passed and no one tried to call his attention, much to his relief.

Felix made it to the edge of the town and through the palace gates and made his way through the gardens. Around this time the prince would usually be in the gardens studying a book from one of his many lessons. Sometimes Felix felt sorry for Dimitri and the amount of lessons and different trainings he had to go through as a prince. Boy was he glad he wasn’t born as a prince, though he does still have his own fair share of lessons, but nowhere near as many as Dimitri did.

He strolled through the gardens, looking around at the different small flowers and bushes as he did when someone grabbed his collar and quickly pulled him down and behind a tall bush.

“Umph!”

Felix’s eyes widened and he whipped his head around towards his assailant to see flaming red hair, brown eyes and a devilish grin.

“Sylvaaiin!”

Sylvain clamped his hand over Felix’s mouth causing Felix to glare at him.

“Not so loud…! You’ll alert his Highness.” The redhead hissed as he released his friend’s face. “So, you here to bust Dimitri’s studies too?” Sylvain gave him a mischievous look.

“No! I was going to wait around till he was done, _then_ hang out.” Felix hissed back.

“Tsk, That’s nowhere near as fun. The guy could use a break, so I was going to drag him away from his books to go chat up some of the girls in town.” Sylvain grinned, “And you should definitely join.”

“I highly doubt Dimitri would be interested in joining in on your philandering. Nor would I, for that matter.” Felix gave a look that said he wasn’t amused, then sighed, “He probably should take a break though.” Dimitri had been stuck in rigorous studying for days.

“Yes! Now we’re on the same page.” Sylvain cheered.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to go hitting on girls…! Just have him come with us to take a break for a bit.” Felix grit out. “We can just get some food, maybe play a game.”

“Fiiine. Have it your way. There’s a new dish at this one place I really wanted you guys to try anyway.”

“Sounds good to me. Now let’s go and grab Dimitri.” Felix paused, “Why were you sneaking to do this? Why not just ask him directly?”

Sylvain snickered, “It’s more fun this way. We’re gonna sneak up, and grab him. Then start dragging him off into town.”

“And you don’t think that’ll look odd to any guards?” Felix questioned with a raised brow.

“It’s not like he’ll be kicking and screaming, he’ll know it’s us.” Sylvain snuck out from behind the bush and started creeping towards where the prince sat at a table with his book open before Felix could get another word out.

Felix grumbled under his breath as he followed, making sure to remain hidden. “He’ll know it’s us, but the guards…”

The two boys silently crept closer to the prince’s back, his almost shoulder-length blonde hair hung forward over his book as he concentrated. They slowly stood up as quietly as they could and each grabbed one of his arms. Dimitri yelped at the sudden assault.

“Got him!” Sylvain cheered.

Felix rolled his eyes.

The duo started carefully hoisting Dimitri up from his seat and pulling him through the garden.

“G-guys! Is this really necessary?!” Dimitri asked in mild protest.

“Oh most certainly, your highness! You’re coming with us for a well needed break!” Sylvain announced with a huge grin on his face.

“I hate to find out what you mean by that.” The prince replied.

“You wound me! Our plan has nothing to do with anything like that!” Sylvain exclaimed, pretending to be hurt.

Dimitri turned his head to his raven-haired friend, “You’re in on this too, Felix?”

“Wasn’t my original plan, Sylvain kinda dragged me into it.” Felix grumbled as they exited the gardens… and were immediately spotted by the guards.

“Hey! What do you two think you’re doing with the prince?!” called one of the guards.

And the two guards started charging towards them.

“Whoops.” Sylvain awkwardly laughed and Felix just huffed as they suddenly picked up their pace.

“G-guys! This isn’t really-! I have legs!” Dimitri protested then called to the guards, “Th-this isn’t what it looks like…!”

The guards continued to chase them till they caught up and other guards by the gate had blocked them off. The guards surrounded the boys who were each still holding Dimitri who just looked up at the guards.

Felix and Sylvain each quickly released Dimitri’s arms and shoved their hands behind their backs.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” Felix started.

“Yeah!” Sylvain laughed awkwardly, “We’re his friends and were just going to take him for a break from his studies!”

“And why should we believe you? You don’t think anyone could just go and claim they were friends of the prince as they try to kidnap him?” A guard questioned, glaring accusingly at the two of them.

Felix flinched and Sylvain wrung his hands behind his back as Dimitri stepped in front of them.

“Please! They speak the truth! They’re friends of mine, the sons of House Gautier and House Fraldarius!” Dimitri frantically explained to the angry guards.

The guards hesitated as they each looked Felix and Sylvain up and down then straightened themselves.

“What are your names? And show your house crest.” One of the bigger guards demanded.

Sylvain immediately pulled off a pin from his cloak that had carved into it the house crest of Gautier and bowed slightly, “My name is Sylvain Jose Gautier, heir to House Gautier.”

Felix quickly did the same, removing the clasp from his jacket with the House crest of Fraldarius and dipped his head, “I am Felix Hugo Fraldarius, second son of House Fraldarius.”

The guards looked at each of their house crests and handed them back, the boys quickly shoving them into their pockets.

“There are less suspicious ways to take his Highness out for a break. If you two don’t want to end up in trouble due to misunderstandings, I suggest you try using them.” The bigger guard said to them sternly.

“Yes sir, we’ll definitely do that next time.” Sylvain sweated.

“Good.” The guards unblocked their way, “Enjoy your break, your highness.”

“Thank you. And I apologize for the trouble.” Dimitri dipped his head apologetically.

“It’s not your fault, your Highness.” Sylvain bowed his head to the guards, “We apologize for causing a misunderstanding.”

Felix bowed his head as well.

“Just don’t do it again.” The guards said as they went back to their posts.

The trio straightened themselves and hurried their way out of the palace gates to the town.

“I told you trying to drag him out was going to be a bad idea.” Felix grumbled, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

“Hey, it all turned out fine in the end!”

Dimitri and Felix glared at their red-haired friend.

“B-but yeah, you’re right, it was a bad idea. I’m sorry I got us into trouble.” Sylvain relented. “It won’t happen again.”

“Good.” The two responded in unison.

“Since we’re going to try this new dish you mentioned, we should probably bring Ingrid too.” Felix said in thought.

“Oh, of course, I planned on it. She’d never let me live it down if I didn’t bring her along and I’m sure she’ll love what the cook is making. I hear it has one of her favorite meats in it.” Sylvain grinned.

“What is this place we’re going to eat at?” Dimitri asked curiously.

“We’ve all eaten there before, a few times actually. The cook recently made a new recipe that he’s going to test on the menu today, he’s also giving anyone who tries it a discount on his famous dessert, Saghert and Cream.” Sylvain explained, sending Dimitri a wink.

The prince’s face brightened considerably at the mention of his favorite desert. The mixture of berries and sweet cream was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.

They strolled through the town to the edge and through some trees to the Galatea territory. The lands and goods were meager compared to the others but you could see the effort put into keeping them going. They followed the path up to the house to find Ingrid tending to some plants.

She stopped as she saw them approaching.

“Hey Ingrid! Care to join us to try the cook’s new dish? I hear it has your favorite meat and there’s a discount on his Saghert and Cream for all who try it.” Sylvain grinned widely at her.

“A new dish? And his famous dessert? Count me in! Let me just put these up really quick and let my father know I’ll be out.” Ingrid’s eyes were lit up like a kid on Christmas as she finished what she’d been doing and put stuff up before briefly running inside.

A minute later she came running back out and joined them to head back into town. They made their way into the town once more and down the streets till they were in front of the restaurant of their plans. They opened the door to the place, the bell ringing to announce their entry, and sat around one of the wooden tables. Upon seeing them, the cook shuffled over to them and greeted them with a smile.

“What can I get for you kids today?” the man asked in kind, deep voice.

“We were hoping to try your new dish.” Sylvain piped up.

The cook grinned, “The new one for all ya? You got it.”

The burly man disappeared into the kitchen and began cooking in earnest as a waitress came over to them and handed each of them a cup of water. They thanked her, Sylvain giving her a wink, and sipped their waters as they drifted into conversation.

“So your highness, are your studies finally slowed again? It seems you haven’t been able to take a break for days.” Ingrid turned her attention to Dimitri who turned to look at her.

“Wellll, I was actually kinda kidnapped by these two.” He pointed to Sylvain and Felix.

“Kidnapped is such a strong word, I prefer to think of it as insisting that you take a break with us, and winning.” Sylvain cut in.

“Is that why we had the palace guards chasing us?” Felix questioned pointedly.

“You had the _guards_ going after you? What did you _do?_ ” Ingrid stared Sylvain down and he immediately started sweating under her gaze.

Felix recounted the entire series of events up to before they went to pick her up and they watched as her expression became more and more exasperated as he talked.

“I’m surrounded by idiots.” Ingrid rubbed her temples.

“Hey! I didn’t do anything!” Dimitri pouted.

“I wasn’t meaning you too, your highness, just those two” she assured.

“Tsk, I said it was a bad idea.” Felix grumbled.

“But you still took part! You guys could’ve gotten in serious trouble!” Ingrid chastised.

The boys hung their heads.

“Ugggh, You guys are lucky Dimitri got them to let you explain yourselves, and that you’re kids.” She sighed.

“Hey! I am thirteen years old, soon to be fourteen mind you, which hardly qualifies as being a kid anymore.” The young redhead protested.

“Then maybe act like it. Even so, you’re still not an adult. We’re all still technically kids.” Ingrid said and sipped her water.

Felix pouted and Sylvain just shrugged as their food was brought and set in front of each of them.

“Here you are, let me know if there’s anything else I can get for ya.” The cook grinned, laid out some eating utensils, and went to finish another table’s order as the group called out their hearty thank yous.

Felix looked down at his food and immediately felt his mouth water. His dish held juicy seasoned beef with a sauce he didn’t recognize, the veggies were cooked in a warm broth with herbs and spices mixed in with some soft noodles and a light amount of cheese to make it creamy.

They each grabbed their forks and swirled them in their noodles and veggies till the fork was wrapped then shoved the bite into their mouths. A happy sigh fell from each of them.

“This is absolutely delicious! I’m glad I let you guys drag me away!” Dimitri shoved another forkful into his mouth.

“Mmm, This tastes divine! The veggies, the noodles, and… the berry sauce he used on this beef, mmm, absolutely delectable.” Ingrid said as she took another bite of her beef.

“Gotta say, the cook here is a legend. I’ve never tasted anything as good as what he makes! He really knows his way around a kitchen.” Sylvain exclaimed.

Felix shoved more beef into his mouth, chewed thoroughly to savor the flavor, and swallowed. His taste buds had never been so happy, this dish was definitely another favorite.

“This tastes amazing. The flavors are well made.” He shoved another forkful into his mouth, “When Glenn gets back, we’ll definitely need to bring him here to try this. He’ll love it.”

“I wouldn’t complain about coming to eat this again with him.” Ingrid chimed in.

They all agreed and continued to dig into their food till their dishes were empty. The cook came over to them as he saw they were finished and collected their dishes.

“Haha, so what did you all think?” The cook propped a hand on his side while the other held their dishes.

“It was wonderful!” Dimitri exclaimed earnestly, “We greatly enjoyed it.”

They nodded in agreement, each adding their own comments on how delicious the meal had been.

“I’m glad to hear it! With all the good reviews of the dish, I’ll be adding it to the menu.” The man chuckled.

The group smiled brightly at the news.

“Can I interest you kids in dessert? I’m giving a discount on the Saghert and Cream.” The cook offered.

“Ohh, yes please, that would be great!” the prince politely agreed.

The others all chimed in their agreements to the dessert, including even Felix, to his and everyone else’s surprise. The cook gave a thumbs up and went to the kitchen.

“I thought you didn’t like sweets?” Sylvain raised a brow at him.

“I don’t, I was so distracted by how good the food was, I didn’t even think about it…” Felix admitted.

The other three laughed.

“So even Felix can be distracted by yummy food and forget himself sometimes.” Ingrid snickered.

“Hmph, shut up…” He huffed and gulped down some water.

“I think you could like this dessert, it’s sweet but also has a slight bitterness to it from some of the berries in the sauce.” Dimitri offered what he hoped to be a reassuring smile.

Felix pouted as while he didn’t like sweets, he didn’t like being wasteful either and would feel bad doing so with something the cook here made.

A few minutes passed and the cook returned with four bowls rested on a tray. He set them in front of each of them, placing a spoon in each bowl.

“Enjoy, kiddos.” He smiled and walked away.

The other three immediately dug in while Felix hesitated, his spoon gripped tightly in his hand.

“Just try it, Felix. It’s really good, I promise.” Sylvain encouraged, “Or are you afraid you’ll like it?”

Felix scoffed at that, “Fine.” And shoved a spoonful of the creamy fruit dessert into his mouth.

Felix flinched at the sudden sweetness and chewed it over. Slowly he started to taste the light bitter flavor from the berries. He actually didn’t mind it too much. The sweet flavor was brief and then mixed with the flavor from the berries. He wasn’t sure how much he’d eat it again, given the choice, but he didn’t dislike it as much as he’d expected. Another point to the cook in being really good at combining things to get good flavors.

His friends shared a smile as he took another bite and they all ate their dessert in silence. Once finished they returned their bowls, thanked the cook, and paid. They grinned at the cook as they left, leaving a note with their reviews in his hands.

The four walked to the park, all in good moods from their meal, and now full of energy as they began a game of tag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all!! An eventful day for our young swordsman indeed. xD Hope ya'll like this chapter, please tell me your thoughts!! ^^ Wishing you all a lovely day <33
> 
> PS. Apologies if the updates are slow sometimes, I sometimes have trouble with inspiration, though I know how the overall story will go... I also sometimes get caught up in drawing, it is a passion of mine... heh heh But I do plan to do my best to see this story to the end! ^^ I love these guys and want to write what I have planned for them, even though some of it will be sad. whoops. But that's the canon, and I don't plan to stray from it too much.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felix gets to begin learning magic from Annette and is in for a shock! <3

**Verdant Rain Moon, Year 1174**

Felix couldn’t contain his excitement as he worked through his morning routine to get ready for the day. Today Annette was going to teach him basic wind magic.

The last few months the young mage had been practicing her magic a lot, wanting to finally master her first spell. Sometimes Felix would watch and make sure she didn’t hurt herself and they would hang out afterwards. Watching her fascinated him. Magic was something so new to him, so different. He knew his father used white magic, but he’d never seen it himself. The most magic Felix could recall witnessing was that of Annette’s mother at the tournament a few months back, which still amazed him when he thought back to it. He couldn’t wait to try magic out for himself.

Felix laced his boots and pulled on his blue, furred cloak, clasping it shut at the top. He ran a hand through his dark hair as he shoved a pair of gloves into his pockets and ran out the door to his room, passed his brother’s stunned expression, and down the stairs to grab something quick to eat. He grabbed a couple rolls and fruits from the basket on the counter and carefully wrapped them and stuffed them into a paper sack, keeping out a small roll for him to eat on his way. He shoved the roll into his mouth when he heard his brother laugh from the doorway.

“In a hurry?” Glenn teased with a growing smirk on his face.

Felix swallowed the roll and gave the older boy an annoyed look.

“No. Why would I be in a hurry?”

“Ohh I don’t know… Cause you’re going to meet a certain orange haired girl who enjoys singing…” Glenn’s smirk grew more and more at the flustered look on Felix’s face.

“Hmph.. We’re just going to practice some magic…” Felix mumbled.

Glenn’s eyes widened at that.

“Magic?”

“Yeah, you know that ability where you can blast wind or fire from your fingertips?”

“Ha. Ha. I know what magic is, smartass.” The young knight rolled his eyes, “I just wasn’t expecting that you’d be interested in learning how to use it.”

“Annette kinda got me interested…” Felix muttered.

“Hmm..?” Glenn raised a brow at him, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

Felix opened his mouth to repeat his response when he felt his neck heat up and quickly revised his words, “I was intrigued from watching Annette’s mother at the tournament… So I asked Annette if she could teach me what she knows.”

His brother looked amused but just nodded. “Well, it’s good that you’re expanding your abilities. Magic, I’ve seen, can be quite useful and it doesn’t hurt knowing even just a little.”

Felix stared, “Do you know any magic?”

“Just basic healing, which has certainly come in handy.” He ran a pale hand through his slightly wavy locks. “Never know when just knowing the heal spell might save someone..”

“That’s a fair point. Maybe I should learn a healing spell too.” Felix looked in thought as he tied the paper sack to his belt.

“It’d never hurt to learn it. Maybe I can teach it to you later. That said, for now, it’d probably be best you focus on one type of magic till you hone in your magical ability.” Glenn suggested, “And on that note, you should probably hurry to meet your girl for that magic practice, it’s rude to keep her waiting after all.” The smirk returned to his face.

Felix felt his whole face heat up, “Sh-she’s not my girl!” he protested and ran out the door and into the back yard as his brother just chuckled.

Felix trekked through the trees mumbling to himself, his hands buried in his pockets and the small bag of food swinging from his belt. He crossed the field and stream, entering the Dominic’s back yard where Annette sat, a tome in her lap. He quietly made his way over to her trying to not disturb her reading and plopped himself into the grass beside her. She continued to read, not seeming to notice his presence as she occasionally mumbled to herself so incoherently he couldn’t understand what she was saying. He leaned back on his hands briefly then curiously peeked over her shoulder at the page she was on to see descriptions of magic. His eyes scanned the page in interest until Annette finally realized he was there.

“Bah!”

“Ahh!”

They both cried out and jolted a couple feet away from each other, their eyes wide with surprise, Felix’s from her sudden outcry.

“H-how long have you been here?” Annette questioned in confusion.

“Only a few minutes…! I just got here and you were reading so intently, I didn’t want to interrupt…” Felix explained.

“I see… That’s thoughtful of you. Sorry I didn’t notice you get here, I was so absorbed in the tome I didn’t notice anything else. I tend to do that a lot.” She smiled sheepishly and he just laughed.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I can get the same way when I’m training.” He smiled as he straightened himself.

“Alright. Well, speaking of training and now that you’re here, shall we go to the field to start training you in magic?” Her blue eyes were lit up with excitement which only bolstered his own.

“Definitely! Oh, and I brought some snacks for when we take breaks,” he removed the paper sack from his belt, “It’s not much, I just grabbed what’d be quick to take but would still be tasty to eat.”

Annette peered into the bag and smiled, “Ooooo, looks yummy! It’ll make a great snack for breaks.”

Felix let out a relieved breath and the two turned to the creek and began crossing to the other side into the field. Thanks to the slightly warmer temperatures of the summer the grass was actually a little green and there was more small wildlife out then usual. It still wasn’t anywhere near as lush as some of the areas read about in books, but it was Fearghus, it was home. The breeze gave a slight chill in reminder that it would soon be fall, and leaves in the trees rustled.

Felix set the sack of snacks on a nearby stump and pulled out the gloves he brought from his pocket. He was about to put them on when he heard Annette giggle.

“You look so serious!” she giggled again, “You know you don’t have to wear gloves when you cast magic, right?”

“Huh? I don’t?” He looked up at her then down at his gloves.

“Nope. Your hands will be fine whether you wear gloves or not while casting spells.” She explained.

“Oh, interesting.” He shoved his gloves back into his pocket and went to stand next to Annette.

Annette pulled out a cord and quickly tied her hair up before turning back to face Felix.

“Alrighty! So, first things first, since this is your first time you’ll need to start with focusing your mind and energy. When you’re practiced in magic, doing this will come naturally and will take no time so that you’ll cast magic quickly and easily, but as one who’s never done it before, it’ll take a little longer to focus your energy into magic.” she paused in thought, messing with a strand of her orange hair, “Hmmm, try to imagine your energy taking form in your hands, something like that!”

Felix nodded and closed his eyes in concentration. He concentrated on his heart, his mind, the blood flowing in his veins. He focused as hard as he could, squeezing his eyes shut. Annette watched from where she sat in the grass, a look of curiosity and excitement on her face. She watched his eye lids twitch, his nose scrunch up, his hair dance in the breeze. She then glanced down at his hands as she saw them begin to glow and her eyes widened.

Felix’s hands clenched into tight fists at his side as his brows furrowed, he could feel the warmth pooling into his palms but his focus was beginning to slip. Suddenly his hands felt hot and he jolted, his concentration slipping and the heat fading from his hands. His eyes shot open.

“Dang! I was so close!” He huffed in frustration.

His orange haired friend laughed and stood from her spot.

“You almost were there! Your hands were glowing!” Annette cheered excitedly. “Hehe you were making funny faces though.” She snickered, hiding her smile behind her hands.

Felix’s face flushed in embarrassment and he groaned. “Must you poke fun at me?”

“Yes.” Was her immediate response and he puffed his cheeks indignantly. She laughed and went up to him with a bright smile, “Your hands were glowing though. You were very close. On your first attempt too, I expected it’d take a couple tries before you got that far. Does your family have an affinity for magic?”

Felix scratched the back of his head, “I wouldn’t really call it an affinity… My Father’s a Holy Knight, so he knows some white magic, and my brother knows the basic healing spell, but that’s about it. I think my mother might also know some healing, now that I think about it. But none of my family is really magic focused, mainly the sword.”

“I see, that’s probably still enough to make magic a little easier for you. I mean, think about it; my mother’s the only mage and my father is an armored knight. My parents say that I’m really good at magic, even though I only know the one spell so far. They say that I had mastered my wind spell a while ago and that my need to practice it so much was me trying too hard… They may be right about that, I tend to train and study a lot, never realizing when I already mastered something… But I figure that means that all that extra studying will just make me do even better at it!” she paused, “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to prattle on like that…! We’re supposed to be training you in magic, so let’s get back to that…”

Annette blushed and an embarrassed laugh escaped her lips.

“It’s alright.” He took a breath, “So, should I try the same thing as before?”

“Yes, the same thing as before. It was working really well the first time.” She smiled and came up beside him. “Did you feel anything when you were concentrating?”

“My hands started to feel warm… just before I lost my focus they felt hot.” He relayed to her.

“Okay, hmm.. So this time when you feel your hands get warm continue to let them. Then, when they feel hot, throw your hand out towards that tree! Like you’re throwing something! Force the magic from your hands. That’s what my mother would tell me to do when she first started teaching me magic.” She grinned widely, “If all goes well, you should have wind shooting from your palms!”

Felix smiled at the idea and turned to face a tree. He took a deep breath then let it out and closed his eyes in concentration. This time he focused even harder, keeping his breathing even. After a few minutes he clenched his fists when he started to feel the warmth pool into his palms once more. He grit his teeth and clenched his fists tighter till he felt them entirely be enveloped in warmth.

With a little more concentration his hands were hot and he felt a tingle around his fingers, the feeling almost electric. The tingling feeling had completely enveloped his fingers and hands, and when he felt a spark his eyes shot open and he thrust his hands out towards the tree.

Yellowish white light burst from his fingertips and crackled as it shot across the distance between Felix and the tree that was his aim. The light crackled with strings of electricity dancing around it til it hit its target in the center of the tree’s trunk, blasting bits of bark onto the ground and scorching the spot on the trunk black.

Annette and Felix stared in shock at the charred bark where his magic hit, their mouths hanging agape. They both remained in stunned silence as they stared for what felt like several minutes til Annette finally spoke.

“That was thunder magic!!”she exclaimed in excitement. “Ohhh Felix, you can use thunder magic! That is so awesome!” She cheered and danced around.

“Wow…” he muttered to himself and stared at his hands curiously. They had already cooled significantly and their glow had faded. He suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion and put a hand to his head.

“Why do I feel so tired all a sudden…?” he looked over to Annette who was giving him a concerned look.

“Hmm, probably from your first use of magic. Now that I think about it, I felt pretty tired the first few times I used magic before I got to where I didn’t have to concentrate as much too.” She paused in thought, “Maybe we should call it good for today and eat some snacks! We can practice some more another day, tomorrow if you like?”

“Alright, that’s probably a good idea.” He gave her a smile which she returned tenfold.

The two sat in the grass, scrounging a bit til they were comfortable, and opened the bag of snacks Felix had brought. They split the rolls and fruits between each other and began eating as they laughed and talked about different things they’d had happen at home or while out.

“Th-the pan exploded?!” Felix stared incredulously at his small friend.

“Must you make a scene about it?!” Annette whined, her cheeks a faint shade of pink .

“You say that like there’s anyone around to hear me. Besides! That’s super crazy! Noted to make sure I’m never around while you’re cooking.” Felix made a face and Annette continued to pout.

“Hmph, Felix, you can be mean sometimes…” she muttered.

That grabbed his attention and his eyes widened in panic, “S-sorry! I-I’m sorry..! I didn’t think about my words before I said them… I didn’t mean to hurt you…” the corners of his lips pulled down into a frown, “I’m really… sorry…”

Annette sighed, “It’s alright… You wouldn’t be the first person to say that anyway…” the young mage hung her head, her orange bangs covering her eyes.

Felix’s frown deepened, “But I apparently added to a list of others who have also said it and hurt your feelings… And after you spent your day teaching me magic, not the best way to thank you.”

Felix ran a hand through his raven locks.

“I’ll thank you properly for this, I promise. A-and I’ll try to think before I say something that might hurt you. I don’t want to make you feel bad, especially over words that I don’t mean. I mean, if I were around when you were cooking something I’d rather help and make sure you don’t hurt yourself and eat whatever you made with you, than just hide.” He gave her an earnest look and tried to smile.

The pout on her face turned into a smile then she said, “Thanks, I’mma hold you to that.” Her smile brightened, “Though you know that makes it sound like my cooking ability is so bad that you think I need protection?”

Felix’s face flushed and he tugged at his hair, “Soorrry! That’s not what I meant… Gah, I’m horrible at words!”

Annette giggled, pulling back his attention. “I was just messing with you! I know what you were saying. Just take it is as my payback for saying you’d stay away.”

Felix pouted but couldn’t help the slight upward tug of the corners of his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Hope this chapter is okay... It was fun to type up. :) Woo! Felix is a growing thunder mage with Annette as his magic teacher ^^ This should be a fun road for them filled with many a charred tree stumps/targets. Hope you guys liked this chapter! Please tell me your thoughts! ^^
> 
> So I recently started playing Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and omg why had I not picked up this game until now?? I love it so much, it is a lot of fun, super pretty, and the story/lore and music are so good and enjoyable. I'm having a lot of fun with it. ^^ lol ahem, anyway, I hope you all have a lovely day!! <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A friendly snowball fight ends in a sick Felix. His friends are worried and shocked, and he's bedridden for a while, leading to an unexpected visit.

**Red Wolf Moon – Year 1174**

Winter in Faerghus was much colder than winters in other areas as it was usually cold all year round, making Faerghus winters even colder. The sky was grey and cloudy, the sun nowhere in sight, and all the trees had lost their leaves and color. The small wildlife had all already left for the season as the colder winds were too much for them to survive. For this time of year the people of Faerghus wore more furs than usual in order to keep warm and there was always a fire going, even outdoors for those who were running errands or were just out for walks.

Felix and his friends sat on the rug in front of the fire place in the Fraldarius household, each with a book propped in their laps. They were studying new training methods and strategies while sipping cups of hot tea. Felix read his book intently, trying to take in every word to memory. He sipped his tea and flipped a page. As he read he started to feel a slight haze come over him but he just shook it off. He looked up at his friends. Ingrid was staring intensely at the book in her hands as though her life depended on what she was reading, Sylvain was lazily scanning the pages of his book, yet still greatly focused, and Dimitri was ever focused, his eyes never breaking from the pages. Felix looked back at his own book when Glenn’s voice broke the silence.

“Woah, it’s snowing already..!” his voice was slightly surprised, but not by much, as he gazed outside.

Felix and the other’s heads all perked up at the mention of snow and they glanced out the window. Sure enough flurries of snow could be seen fluttering down to rest on the earth, leaving a layer of fluffy white on the ground. Sylvain grinned and set his book on the floor.

“What do you guys say about a snow break?” Sylvain questioned with a hint of excitement.

“I’m in. We have been studying for a while after all.” Dimitri grinned and carefully closed the book he’d been reading.

“Sure! Sounds like good exercise.” Felix chimed in, also closing his book.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for a little while.” Ingrid agreed and grinned brightly.

“Alright! Let’s bundle up and hit the snowy battlefield!” Sylvain grinned wickedly as he pulled on his furs and boots.

Felix and the others all joined in to do the same. Felix grabbed his coat and cloak and quickly pulled them on then put on his boots and laced them up. He grabbed his pair of thick gloves, his scarf and his hat and threw them on as well. Once bundled up him, his friends and his brother made their way into the backyard. They split to begin building their forts.

Felix collected as much snow as he could to make a good-sized fort, which luckily there was plenty already as the snow had quickly covered the ground in a thick layer of white. Once finished, Felix sat on a stone to wait for the others. He fiddled his fingers and watched the snow fall around him.

After a few more minutes everyone had finished putting together their forts and were all standing at the ready, some snow in their hands that they molded into a snowball. Felix grabbed some of the snow at his feet and rolled it into a lumpy little ball of his own. Once they each held a ball of snow in their hands they faced each other, Glenn and Sylvain wearing mischievous grins on their faces. Felix raised his snowball, as did the others, and the fight began. Sylvain threw snowball after snowball at each of them, not missing a beat, and they all tried to dodge out of the way and throw their own. Felix narrowly missed a snowball from Dimitri and was preparing a new snowball when he saw the large ball of snow that Ingrid was patting up. Felix’s eyes widened and he silently prayed that the snowball wasn’t meant for him. He took the snowball he’d made and thrust it forward at Glenn, catching him in the shoulder.

“Oof!” Glenn jolted forward at the sudden impact, having not noticed it flying towards him.

Glenn quickly turned to look at his brother, a grin on his face as he was about to throw a ball of snow Felix’s way but was immediately struck in the back by a larger icy force. Felix laughed as Glenn yelped and stumbled forward onto his hands and knees. Glenn turned to the culprit and charged her, an entertained grin on his face. Felix took his escape from his brother’s focus and bent down to collect more snow into his hands.

The cold substance dampened his gloves as he patted it together. He then stood and felt his body sway slightly. Despite the cold his face felt warm and his head felt that light haziness again. Felix shook his head and straightened himself before throwing his snowball at Dimitri. The blonde quickly jumped out of the way and threw a snowball of his own. Felix tried to dodge but his body felt heavy and he stumbled, the cold substance hitting his arm.

Around him his friends and brother were running around throwing snowballs at each other, their laughs and yells filling the air.

“Heh! You won’t escape me this time Ingrid!” Glenn called as he chased her, his arms filled with snowballs.

Ingrid laughed and ran as she threw snowballs behind her at her assailant.

Sylvain and Dimitri were throwing snowballs at each other and the running pair, both laughing.

Felix threw another snowball, this time at Sylvain, who grinned and threw two back. Felix managed to dodge one, but the other hit him in the shoulder. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and he let out a heavy breath as he picked up more snow. He rose to his feet and, forgetting to even pat the snow into a ball, he weakly threw it forward. The handful of snow fell to the ground just a few feet away from him before he stumbled forward into the snow.

“Felix!?”

He heard the other’s concerned voices as they halted their game and came rushing towards him. He tried to force himself up but he couldn’t move his limbs. He felt hot and his breaths had gotten uneven. Felix felt himself be turned over as Glenn pulled him into his grasp.

“His face is completely flushed and dripping with sweat!” Dimitri’s voice exclaimed, laced with worry and surprise.

Felix felt a hand touch his forehead and jerk back seconds later.

“He has a really high fever!” came Ingrid’s voice.

“Damnit! How did I not notice sooner.. We gotta get him inside.” Glenn said as he pulled Felix into his arms and stood.

The others quickly opened the backdoor as Felix felt himself be carried into the warmth of the house. His limbs felt heavy and he was too warm. Felix squirmed from the discomfort of all the heat. Glenn laid him on the couch and Felix felt his extra layers get removed so that he was left in just his tunic and pants then had a blanket pulled over him up to his chin.

“What’s wrong?” his mother’s voice entered the room and asked the group. When she saw Felix’s state she ran over to them and felt his face. “Felix! Oh son, you’re burning up!” her forehead creased and she frowned as she dabbed his face with her handkerchief. “Can one of you get me a cool wet towel, please?” she kindly requested the group and Ingrid nodded and left to the kitchen. “This is earlier than usual.. He usually doesn’t get sick till closer to the end of this moon or during the next.” The older woman’s frown deepened with worry as she wiped the droplets of sweat from his brow.

“You mean this happens regularly..? Every year?” Dimitri asked with wide eyes.

The dark-haired woman nodded her head, a kind of sad look in her eyes.

“Felix gets sick whenever it gets too cold… so being in Faerghus it happens sometimes even throughout the year, though not very often and not as bad.. It’s worse in the winter, he usually spends most of the winter sick and limited to indoor activity…” Glenn explained, his face filled with concern. “And yet I had completely forgotten before we all piled outside… and he was probably too distracted by the chance of competition that he didn’t notice either…” he frowned.

“So that’s why we don’t really see him in the winters…” Sylvain frowned, his arms crossed. “I thought he was just going on some winter training trip or something…”

“Poor Felix… I can’t imagine being sick all the time…” Ingrid fiddled with her braid with one hand as she entered the room again with the wet towel in her other hand.

Mrs. Fraldarius took the towel from Ingrid’s hand and gently placed it on Felix’s forehead. Felix flinched at the sudden cold, but otherwise laid still aside from his uneven breaths.

“Felix hates it. He can’t train as much and is forced to rest as much as possible.” Glenn said as he scratched his head, “I think that’s part of why he tries so hard in training, and trains so often.” He added. “Other than trying to best me..”

Their mother sighed, “I wish he wouldn’t push himself so hard… But at the same time, I am proud of him..” She paused and stood, smoothing Felix’s hair with her fingertips. “I’m going to grab him some medicine and get started on a soup. You three should probably head on home soon…” She gave them a sweet smile, “I understand you all are worried, but he’ll be fine. He just needs to get all the rest he can and not do anything that could stress out his body too much.”

“Alright..” Dimitri nodded, a frown etched in his features. “Let’s head home everyone… Mrs. Fraldarius, would visiting Felix on occasion be alright?”

“Of course, that’d be fine.” She smiled as she answered, “Despite what Felix might say, I’m sure he’d like it if you guys came by occasionally.”

The group waved goodbye to Mrs. Fraldarius and exited the house, Glenn following behind to see them off.

“Man, can’t believe we’ve known Felix for so many years, and we never knew or realized that Felix is sick every winter..” Sylvain looked at the ground with sad eyes.

“Well, to be fair, Felix also was hoping no one would find out… Being sick so much, he didn’t want to be seen or treated as though he’s weak or fragile.” Glenn explained.

Ingrid sighed, “That’s so like him… Though I can’t say I wouldn’t feel the same way. I’d hate if I were treated as though I was fragile because I was sick so much. It’d be stifling…”

“True…” Dimitri agreed, “Though if anything, I see him as even stronger than I initially knew him to be. His body’s weakened with being sick so much, and yet he’s a great swordsman.”

“Agreed!” Ingrid chimed. “His skills with a blade are hard to match, he even keeps Glenn on his toes.”

“Ha! If anything, I respect him even more now.” Sylvain shoved his hands into his pockets.

Glenn chuckled, “He’d be glad to hear you guys say that. Thanks for understanding…”

“Of course! He’s our friend.” Sylvain grinned, “Wish him to get well soon, for us okay? We’ll come by to visit him again when we get the chance.”

A smile spread on Glenn’s face and he nodded, “Will do. You guys take care getting home.”

He waved and the others waved back as they turned to start their walk home. Glenn entered the house to see Felix sitting up slightly with a bowl of hot soup in his lap.

Felix looked up from his soup when he heard Glenn enter the room and he slowly lowered his spoon.

“You’re eating already?” Glenn gave him a surprised look, “I figured you’d be passed out for quite a while longer.”

“I was really hungry, I guess…” Felix mumbled and spooned some broth and veggies into his mouth. Some broth dribbled down his chin and he wiped it with his napkin. He was still very sweaty and his cheeks were still flushed red from his fever, his hair in a mess. Felix felt sluggish as he slowly spooned soup into his mouth while trying to not make a mess.

Glenn pulled up a chair next to the couch and took a seat. “Why don’t you let me help you with that.”

“I can feed myself…” He grumbled.

“I know you can, normally, but right now you look like you’re having trouble and I doubt you want to end up with more soup on you than you’ve actually eaten?” the older boy pointed out.

Felix groaned but hesitantly conceded, relinquishing his spoon and bowl to his older brother. Glenn took the spoon and started carefully feeding the soup to Felix. Felix acted annoyed with the action at first but eventually he relaxed and just ate, slowly feeling more and more tired as he did. Sometimes he’d cough and Glenn would help him drink some water or wipe his face with the napkin. Once he had been fed the last spoonful of soup, Felix laid back and curled up into his blanket, falling asleep instantly. Glenn wiped the sweat from his face and left the room to clean the dishes.

The next few weeks were spent in similar fashion. Felix was almost always resting either in his bed or on the couch, his fever never really seeming to go down. Glenn or his mother would usually help him eat his meals and move around the house. On days when he had more energy he would read a book his mother had found for him, or he’d practice trying to make things out of small pieces of wood with his pocket knife. His father would tell him stories from his missions and visits at the palace and there were even days when his friends would come by to see how he was doing and hang out with him by his couch. The attention bothered him sometimes, though he knew they meant well, but he slowly just came to accept it. He was at least glad that his friends didn’t seem to look at him any differently.

As the days and weeks of him being sick dragged on, he began to wonder about his small red-haired friend. He hadn’t been able to visit her since he was sick and hadn’t been able to tell her why. A part of him hoped that she’d come to see him and that she wondered about his absence. He wondered if she missed him coming to hang out with her like he missed hearing her sing her songs. And the other part of him didn’t understand why he was thinking such things and found it embarrassing. Besides, he didn’t want her to see him like this. He felt incredibly weak when he was in this state….

Felix sat in his bed, his blanket heated from his mother setting it by the fire. He skimmed through his new book on sword techniques and maintenance, trying to keep his mind sharply trained even if he couldn’t train his body and ability. He had even recently added books on thunder magic to his training though he was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to practice that either while sick. _Err… Maybe I_ should _find a way to tell Annette that I’m sick… She_ is _my magic teacher and friend…_ he mulled over it to himself.

After some thought, he hastily grabbed a piece of paper from his nightstand and something for a flat surface. He took his quill from the inkwell on the stand and began to write. He apologized for not visiting to hang out with her or train and explained that the reason was due to him being sick for a while. Then he made extra sure to emphasize that she shouldn’t worry about him and to not try to visit him as he’d be fine and didn’t want to get her sick or anything.

“That should do it…”

Once finished, he signed the letter and sealed it in an envelope. He set the letter with her name on it on his nightstand for now and curled up on his side as he felt a cough coming. He’d just have to ask Saria, their house helper and his friend, if she could have the letter delivered next time she came to check on him. He coughed several times into his tissue and curled up tighter.

Felix just hoped he’d feel better soon. He hated that he had to be helped with everything; he couldn’t even shower by himself, let alone eat or get dressed. He was glad his brother was willing to help him as having Saria help him eat would’ve been embarrassing. She still had to come and do things like check his temperature or bring him his medicine though when his mother couldn’t. He pouted and closed his eyes. For now he would just sleep, he felt so tired despite resting all the time. Felix dozed off, silly songs of apples and the sun sung by a certain young mage playing through his mind. A smile formed on his lips and he slept dreamlessly till evening.

When Felix awoke around dinner time he rubbed his eyes and looked at his nightstand where his letter should have been, but it wasn’t there anymore. He frantically looked around the stand and on the floor then checked under his pillows and blankets to make sure it hadn’t somehow ended up in his bed. Suddenly his bedroom door opened and Saria walked in.

“Umm, Felix? What are you doing? You should be resting! Did you lose something?” the girl gave him a concerned look.

“Err, Saria, you wouldn’t happen to know what happened to the letter I wrote for Annette and left on nightstand, would you?” Felix fidgeted with his fingers.

“Oh! Yes, I found it there when I came to check your temperature while you were asleep. I had it delivered for you. I had a pretty good idea of what it was about so I figured that you’d want her to receive it pretty soon.” She gave him a smile, a smile that said that wasn’t everything, but Felix was too drained to think too much about it.

“O-oh, uh, thanks..” Felix let out a relieved sigh and with the small amount of energy he had had now gone, he fell limply into his mattress. He’d barely moved and already felt completely exhausted, his cheeks heating up.

“Anyway, it’s supper time so I came to bring you your dinner,” She indicated the tray in her arms. “and check your temperature…” she added, noticing the redness of his face.

“What about Glenn?” Felix frowned.

“He has a special knight’s training till dark, so he won’t be able to eat with you this time.. He asked me to apologize for him since you were asleep.” She explained.

“Oh.. it’s fine, I know he’s busy sometimes..” still Felix couldn’t help but pout. Though he’d never admit it, he liked the time spent with his brother when Glenn was helping him. He felt like it made them closer. But it couldn’t be helped if Glenn had special training to attend.

Saria nodded and set the tray of food on his nightstand. She quickly cleaned her hands and pressed her palm to his forehead, a frown tugging at her lips.

“Your fever just keeps coming back, it was lower when I checked earlier…” she pulled her hand back and got a cloth wet with cool water, wrung it out and placed it neatly on his forehead.

Felix slowly sat up, propped on his elbows and Saria placed a couple pillows behind him to act as support. He reached for the tray next to him which Saria quickly lifted and carefully set in his lap. He grabbed the spoon and slowly took a bite of stew, almost missing his mouth.

“Umm, are you sure you’re okay to feed yourself? You look like your having some trouble…” Saria watched him with concern.

“I’m fine…” he mumbled around the food in his mouth. The veggies and meat were savory, and the warmth spread through his body making him feel a little more relaxed.

“But if it helps, I could-” she was interrupted by a kind voice.

“It’s alright, Saria. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take care of my son and spend some time with him.” His mother spoke kindly from the doorway, a smile on her face.

“Of course Madame!” Saria smiled, wished Felix well, and left the room.

Felix looked up from his food to his mother who took a seat next to him on the edge of his bed. She gently wiped the sweat from his face and hair with a cool cloth then went to take the spoon from him.

“Mind if I help you with that? It’s not often I get to help my sons with stuff like eating anymore. Not since you were a wee-one.” She paused, spooning up some stew, “Or would it be unswordsman-like to let your mother take care of you?” she teased with a smile.

Felix didn’t respond but let her help with his food. He eagerly swallowed the spoonful of veggies as he realized just how hungry he was.

“By the way, you had a visitor earlier today…” A slight smile perked at the corners of his mother’s mouth.

“A visitor?” Felix gave a look of confusion, which grew upon noticing his mother’s smile. “Who was it..? I never saw them…”

She spooned some meat and broth and he ate it as he waited to hear who this visitor was that seemed to have caused the amused look his mother held.

“A sweet young girl with hair a soft shade of orange and bright blue eyes.” She peeked at him with a knowing glint in her eye as his own eyes went wide. She continued, “Her name was Annette.”

And his cheeks went red, this time in no relation to his fever.

“A-Annette was here…?” He all but mumbled the question. So that was why Saria’s smile looked entertained earlier like she knew something else.

His mother chuckled at his reaction to this information. Even as a young swordsman, her son could still be so cute when he was flustered.

“Mhmm, she came to visit you, concerned if you were alright since you hadn’t come to hang out with her and practice your magic in a while. We let her know that you have been sick and wouldn’t be able to go out for a while. She asked if she could visit you but since you were asleep we told her maybe another time.” The older woman watched Felix’s face before teasingly adding, “I didn’t know you had a crush Felix, how’s come you’ve never mentioned her? Your father and I would be happy to converse marriage arrangements with her family for your futures.”

Felix sputtered at that, juices from the bite of stew in his mouth dribbling down his chin. He quickly swallowed and wiped his face with the napkin.

“I-I don’t have a crush..! She’s just a friend…” He puffed out his cheeks.

His mother chuckled, satisfied with his reaction, “Of course you don’t.” Her voice was definitely still teasing but she left it at that, not wanting to rile him up too much when he was still sick and needed to be resting.

Felix grumbled as he accepted the next bite of stew. He chewed the meaty bite and swallowed then took another.

“So, what got you interested in learning magic? You’ve only ever shown interest in the sword.” She gave him a curious look.

Felix perked up slightly.

“I saw Annette’s mother use magic at the tournament.. It was amazing! And Annette also uses magic, she’s been learning from her mother. I was so amazed, I decided I wanted to try it out, so Annette’s been teaching me. She uses wind magic though, and when she first started teaching me we learned that I apparently use lightning magic.. But since she studies magic so much in general, she’s still been able to help me to figure out how to use it…” He trailed off, “I’m going to be behind in my training now though…”

“Oh I’m sure you’ll be fine, and Annette seems to be a very understanding girl and willing to help you when you recover.” His mother smiled reassuringly, “She’s a lovely girl, very sweet and a good friend to you. I like her.”

Felix felt himself smile slightly at that, then immediately blushed at the knowing smile his mother was giving him and shook his head, “Sh-she is nice…”

She chuckled, “Well, I’m glad that you’re trying new things, and that you have such a nice friend.” She gave him the last bite of his stew and stood with the tray in her arms. She shifted the tray so that she held it in only one arm and lightly ruffled his hair, “It’s time you should get some more rest dear. I’ll see you in the morning..”

She gently kissed his forehead and moved the pillows from behind Felix. She then eased him into laying on his back and pulled the covers up to his chin. She felt his forehead once more with her hand then went to the door with the tray in hand.

“Goodnight Felix, rest well.”

“Goodnight mother...”

She smiled kindly and exited his room.

Felix curled onto his side and his mother’s comment about them making marriage arrangements with Annette’s family resurfaced into his mind. His face flushed brightly.

_M-marriage?! Annette and I are just friends! Besides we’re still years away from doing anything like that! Though Glenn and Ingrid have been engaged Ingrid’s whole life… But that’s not the point! Though I probably wouldn’t mind it if Annette were my wife one day… I could hear her songs everyday…_ his face turned crimson and he shook his head hard. _What am I even thinking about?!_ It must be the fogginess of his brain from being sick. That definitely had to be it.

Deciding that that was the case he closed his eyes. A cough rose to his throat and he coughed hard into his tissue before wiping the small amount of sweat from his face with his hand. He then curled up tighter and fell asleep for the rest of the night.

_-The Next Day-_

Felix wasn’t sure what to say. He was staring wide eyed at the person standing in his bedroom doorway, his heart racing at the sudden appearance of her. _I thought my letter specifically asked that she didn’t visit me while I was sick…!_

She was standing awkwardly in his room, her orange hair in loose low pigtails over her shoulders and her hands clasped together in front of her. He noted that her hair was slightly longer since the last time he saw her. But that didn’t matter! She wasn’t supposed to visit him!

She fidgeted in her spot then looked up at him with those bright blue eyes of hers.

“Hello Felix..!”

“E-err, hey Annette..” he greeted her in return.

She inched her way closer to his bedside and sat on the stool there that the others often used when they were in their to help him or keep him company.

“Uhh.. Annette? You did read my letter right? I thought I asked that you didn’t visit me while I was sick?” Felix gave her a questioning look.

“I know that, but your mother said I could!” she smiled brightly, “And I wanted to see how you were doing, so I’m here whether you like it or not.” She said with finality.

Felix frowned. It wasn’t like he wasn’t happy to see her; he actually was rather glad to see her again after not seeing her for so long. Not for any special reasons of course. Nope. But he hadn’t wanted her to see him in his sick state. He sighed.

“Fine… Don’t blame me if you get sick.” He glanced at her.

“Your mother said you weren’t contagious, otherwise she wouldn’t have let me come up here.” Annette gave him a look.

He grumbled. He knew that… but it was his best excuse to try to dissuade her from visiting. So much for that…

“Right…”

“I brought some tea! Tea always helps me feel better when I’m sick. I also brought some of those rolls you like so much.” She rummaged through her small satchel she kept slung over her shoulder.

Felix sat silently watching her as she rummaged when something on her bag caught his eye. Or rather _somethings_. He felt a smile tug at his lips at the sight of the two charms he had made for her dangling from her bag.

“You keep the charms on your bag.”

Her head jerked up at the comment and a blush blossomed on her cheeks, the pouch of tea and rolls gripped tightly in her hand.

“O-Of course! You made them for me and I told you that I love them… They’re super cute! So of course I keep them on my bag everywhere I go..!” she stammered out.

“E-everywhere you go…?”

She just gave a silent nod.

Felix’s heart thudded in his chest at this information. The fact that she liked them that much filled him with a warmth that he didn’t quite understand. Maybe just a pride that he had made something she liked so much?

“S-so, how about some tea! I made sure to bring your favorite! And your mother lent me a pitcher of hot water and a couple of cups so I can make it.” She gestured towards the said pitcher and cups that had been sitting on his nightstand since shortly before Annette had gotten here.

_Of course my mother had planned this…_

“Alright, some tea sounds good.” He agreed and further propped himself up when a thought occurred to him, “How’d you find our house?”

“Oh! That actually wasn’t too hard. When you come over you usually come from the woods, so I just figured if I walked through the trees enough I’d find your home soon enough, and here we are!” a proud grin spread on her lips. “I’ll be honest, I think I did go in circles a couple times, but that’s fine! It added to the adventure! Plus I marked the way back so that I can come here more easily other times.” Annette looked entirely pleased with herself.

“Annette… You really don’t need to visit me when I’m sick… I’m fine, promise. This happens every winter anyway…” Felix explained.

“I wasn’t just talking about when you’re sick, silly, I was also talking about any other time too!” she paused, “Wait, did you say that you’re like this _every_ winter??” her hands froze mid pour and she stared at him with wide, concerned eyes.

“Err, yeah…” He muttered.

“That’s awful!” She frowned, “That’s gotta be so lonely… being sick all winter and unable to go out or do anything… I’m sorry Felix…” she looked about on the verge of tears.

“H-hey! It’s not your fault! It’s fine! I’ve gotten used to it… Besides, I have my older brother… and I spend most the time sleeping anyway.. so I’m not really alone much..” Felix tried to reassure her.

“I guess that’s true.. but still, to be stuck in bed all the time, unable to do anything; don’t you get bored?” she looked up at him.

“Well, sometimes, but like I said, I also spend a lot of time sleeping…” he glanced over at her.

“That’s fair… You probably need a lot of rest after all…” she sighed and finished pouring the hot water into their cups. She then added their tea pouches and stirred it till it was fully mixed into a soft brownish shade.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as she finished prepping their tea. Once finished, she carefully handed him his cup.

“Oh right!” she frantically searched her pouch and pulled out a thin straw, “Here! Your mother mentioned that you have some trouble with eating and drinking right now.. so I made sure to bring some straws to make it easier..” she held out the straw to him.

His face flushed in embarrassment at the mention of his current state of weakness, but he took the straw and placed it in his cup. _At least this way I’m freed from the embarrassment of accidently dumping tea down my face in front of her…_

“Thanks…” he mumbled and sipped his tea from the straw. He could already feel his body relax from the warm liquid and the slight fog in his head lightened.

“How do you feel? Is it helping any..?” She gazed up at him hopefully.

“Yeah.. my head feels lighter..” he affirmed.

She gave a relived sigh and smiled, “I’m so glad.. It always helped me at least for a little bit, so I was hoping it might help you, even if it wasn’t a permanent feeling.”

He stared in awe for a moment then returned her smile, “Thank you Annette, it is helping nicely.”

“O-oh it was nothing! I’m just glad I could be of some help..” She hid her face behind her cup.

Another moment of silence passed as they sipped their tea and nibbled at rolls. The tea really was helping him quite a bit; Felix’s head hadn’t felt so clear for what felt like ages. It was nice, even if it wouldn’t last till he wasn’t sick anymore.

The voice of his red-haired friend broke their silence.

“Hey, uhh, Felix?” her blue orbs glanced over at him.

“Yeah?” he looked up from his cup to meet her gaze.

“I know you said in your letter that you didn’t want me visiting you when you were sick… And I’m sorry that I came and did so anyway..! But, I want to visit you and help keep you company…! So… If it’s alright with you.. please, may I visit? If you still say no, I understand… I just wanted to ask…” she trailed off, her eyes staring at the floor as she took another sip of tea.

Felix thought about it. He really hadn’t minded her coming to have tea with him. He was unsure at first, but he also knew that when she stepped through his doorway he had been happy to see her. He bit into his roll, swallowed and finally spoke up to give her an answer.

“I would like that…”

She quickly looked up as if unsure she’d heard correctly, seemingly very sure that he’d say no. But when she saw the slight smile on his face, that he seemed to be trying to hide, she smiled and began to happily hum a tune he didn’t recognize as they continued to enjoy their tea.

Maybe letting her visit him till he recovered wouldn’t be so bad after all…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi! I want to apologize for how long it's been since the last update... (I think it's been 2-3 months >.< ;-;) I feel so bad about it... I had been working on the chapter, just I also have a couple other things I've been working on as well, so writing was a little slower than usual... I'm sorry it's been so long... :'(  
> I hope this chapter is okay, please tell me your thoughts! I would love to read them... ^^ Hope everyone is staying warm and safe this winter and Holiday season! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Helloooo! Welcome to my first Fire Emblem fanfic! I adore Felannie and had this idea that I really wanted to write. There will be other ships as well, but Felannie is the main one ;) I hope ya'll like it! Please tell me your thoughts! ^^


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